God Promises Salvation
How does God show you His love?
Verse of the Day
‘For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.’
Today’s Devotional
If there is one promise we can hold on to, when we need hope or maybe even perspective, it’s that God has promised us that we will get to spend eternity with Him. When it comes to conditional promises, this one seems like the easiest condition to meet. Believe in Jesus. That’s all that is required of us to be saved for eternity.
We are all going to spend eternity somewhere. Each of us will either be WITH God or we will be SEPARATED from God. Those are the only two options, according to the Bible. And all that is required of us to spend our eternal days in the presence of the Father is to believe in the Son. Believe that He came to earth to be sacrificed on your behalf.
I don’t know about you, but some days the hope of getting to spend eternity with God is what I need to hold onto. This life can be difficult and frustrating. But this is not our home. Our final destination is heaven.
When I was still dating my husband, he went on a mission trip to Honduras. This was before cell phones and long before social media. While he was gone, I really missed him and was very excited for him to come back. Since I couldn’t physically talk to him each day, I wrote in a notebook each day that I gave him when he returned. Everyday I wrote down the things that happened and reminded him how much he was loved and missed.
What if we treated God the same way as we wait for our eternity? Isn’t God worthy of our time and affection? Shouldn’t we be anxiously waiting for the time when we get to actually be in God’s presence?
I love the language of these verses. We will not perish. That’s a promise. We will have eternal life. That’s another promise. Jesus doesn’t judge us, He offers us salvation. That’s maybe the best promise of all.
Sometimes I wonder if this is one of those promises that is hard for people to believe because it is too good to be true. We can easily be skeptical of God’s offer of salvation. But that’s where faith comes in. This promise is like all the others. We must decide if we will take God at his Word.
And if we do believe this promise, do we then allow it to shape every moment of every day? Do we live with anticipation of Jesus calling us to our eternal home? Do we look at today as simply a step to get home? Do we treat each day as an opportunity to live out our gratitude to the God who promises this glorious eternity that we don’t deserve?
The answer to most of those questions is no. But each one of us would make a HUGE difference in the lives of every human we encounter if we changed our perspective and lived like we truly believed this promise.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Do you believe that you will be with God for eternity? How would anyone around you know that you believe this?
How has God shown you His love?
How can you live today with the anticipation of your eternal home?
How can you show God your gratitude for your promised eternity?