You Can Be Confident About the Future

By Rick Warren

"And I will live in the house of the Lord forever" (Psalms 23:1-6 NLT).

 How long is forever going to last? Forever! Some day your body is going to die, but you aren't! Your body is going to end, but that's not going to be the end of you. You're going to live forever in one of two places—heaven or hell. They’re both real places. You will spend eternity in heaven or hell. Your body is going to die, but you're not going to die. We were made to last forever.

Why should Christians be the most confident people about the future?

"Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. . . . We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:6,8 NIV).

Death, for Christians, is a transfer, a promotion. It's on to better things; no more problems. You're not ready to live until you're ready to die. You don't know how to live until you're ready to die. Only a fool would go all through life, totally unprepared for something that everybody knows is inevitable.

You're going to die—someday. If you've accepted Christ, then you're going to go to heaven. You'll be released from pain, from sorrow, from suffering, from depression, from fear: "He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone" (Revelation 21:4, MSG).

Thought for the Day

Music expresses what we cannot put into words, but about which we cannot keep silent.