As believers, we probably don’t have trouble seeing ourselves enjoying heaven in the ages to come. You may have even heard other people talk about heaven and perhaps you have visualized what the Bible says about it for yourself. Most of us have some idea of what heaven will be like and we can easily picture ourselves in that setting. Faith has come in that particular area of our lives because of what we have heard and imagined.
Using that same principle, we can begin to imagine ourselves enjoying what God has said in His Word about us in this lifetime, before we go to heaven. But before we can enjoy these promises, we must begin to picture ourselves in the settings God has desired for our lives. He wants our bodies well and whole, free from pain. He wants our families to be united in harmony. He is eager to see our financial status on the rise. He longs for our minds to be at peace, free from depression. It has always been His desire to see us succeed in every area of our lives.
Who said we must live our lives and never enjoy having more than enough? Who said our businesses would never make it? Who said our ministries would be ineffective? We certainly won’t find God saying those things! These are the type of imaginations we are instructed to cast down in Second Corinthians 10:5:
“Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
There will always be people who will give us every reason why we can’t enjoy God’s best. If we dwell on these limitations they will begin to mold our imaginations, then we won’t receive what God has promised us! Romans 12:2 from the J.B. Phillips says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within.”
Have you ever noticed that when you read a newspaper or hear a news broadcast telling of shortages or economic changes, your mind begins to picture the many varied effects these changes will have on you? Our minds receive these tiny bits of information, then forms pictures based on that information. This type of imagining is more widely known as worry. Worry is based on meditating on the will of the devil, certainly not God’s.
Have you ever worried about something wonderful happening to you? No! People worry about tragedy and calamity. Worry is meditating on the horrible things that could happen. It is so easy to imagine terrible things happening because of the negative course the world is following.
Think of our potential when we regularly feed ourselves on the information supplied from God’s Word. We could begin to envision the Word producing fruit in and through us, and the power of God would back us! Nothing that we imagine to do that is based on the promises of God, would not be withheld from us. What a powerful way to live!
