are you heavenly or earthly minded?...

2 corinthians 4.17-18 (ncv), we have small troubles for a while now, small compared with eternity.  but they’re helping us to gain an eternal glory that’s much greater than the troubles.  so [and here’s our decision.  so…] we set our eyes not on what we can see but on what we cannot see. 

colossians 3.2 (tlb) says this, let heaven fill your thoughts.  don’t spend your time worrying about things down here.  that idea of letting heaven fill your thoughts, i know some people are a little scared of that.  there’s this phrase out there “people who are so heavenly minded they’re no earthly good.”  i haven’t met very many people like that.  i really haven’t.  i’ve met a few, people who were so spiritually minded they didn’t care about anybody on this earth.  but the vast majority of people i’ve met who are heavenly minded have the deep care and compassion for people on this earth and the desire to make a difference.  in fact being heavenly minded helps them get rid of the selfishness we so easily live with, get their eyes of the worries of their own life a little bit so they can care about somebody else. 

i’ve also met a lot of people who were so enmeshed in the worries of this world they don’t have time for anybody else.  they’re so earthly minded they’re no good for heaven or earth either.  being heavenly minded shouldn’t make you ignore the needs around you.  it should make you aware of the needs around you and able to meet those needs that are around you.  you make the future your foundation.

how do you do that?  especially for those of you who are feeling hopeless right now, how do you do that?  you do it every hour.  every hour.  you make hope your alarm clock.  every hour you set the watch or the clock and every hour you remind yourself “this world is not all there is.  i’ve got something to hope in.”   

those of you who are feeling particularly hopeless right now, let me just be frank with you.  you’re not going to want to do this.  there’s something about hopelessness that ensnares us.  and we stay caught.  it’s going to feel not quite right to you the first few times you do it.  but i want to encourage you by faith just to do this every hour.  just to take those fifteen seconds to “this world is not all there is.  i'm going to build on the future not on now.” 

i promise you this.  if you’ll do that, every hour, just remind yourself of that during the day – you need an every hour reminder if you’re particularly hopeless.  slowly but surely GOD’s going to lift your eyes off of what you’re going through right now.  HE may not change the circumstances but you will be able to lift your eyes up and when you do that regardless of the circumstances you begin to feel a new hope. 

just a thought from the front porch…