FEB 18

Revelation 21:23, 22:5
Memorise Revelation 21:23
“…for the glory of God did lighten it…”

There are only two places in which we can spend eternity: heaven or hell. Everyone will be placed in one of these two places on judgment day to be there forever and ever. Our Lord in speaking of eternity in Matthew 25:46 says, “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life”. Notice that the duration of the lost in Hell is the same as the duration of the saved in Heaven, “forever and ever”. It is hard for us as mortals to grasp how long eternity will be. As the line in the famous hymn so poetically states: “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun. We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we first begun”.

It is hard to imagine eternity. Even a second can be a very long time – a split second can make all the difference between an Olympic gold and silver medallist. Our lives here on earth are marked by time – seconds, minutes, hours…days and nights. Time both flies and crawls, but mostly it flies. Examinations drag by painfully and indeterminably. Yet, there does not seem enough time to study. When doing something we enjoy, time flies.

Where I grew up though, in the middle of winter it would be dark by the time I got home from school at 5:30pm and dark when I left in the morning. I would look forward to long hot summer days, shedding my winter layers for light summer clothes and basking in the sun. Think of our life here on Earth as one long night, and eternity in Heaven as one joyous endless day. Everything will be clear and bright as we will be able to see and experience everything perfectly as we reign with the Lord forever.

Our lives here on earth have an ending. But our lives in Heaven have no end. Make the best use of your time here. Dear teen, whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. One of your best life mottos is to live in the light of eternity or as the hymn reminds us, “With eternity’s values in view, Lord, May I live each day with eternity’s values in view.” Be the best student, daughter, son, friend, servant of the Lord. What we do here for the Lord, in the fixed amount of time given to each of us, will count for eternity.

Thought: As your life here is but a mere vapour, how then should we face trials and difficulties in the light of eternity?
Prayer: Lord, help us understand that our light affliction is but for a moment, working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.