Apr 26, 2024 Present Thoughts on Future Glory – Words of Grace Blog – April 26, 2024
I’ve never been very good at predicting the future. I’ve missed picking the outcomes of elections and ball games so many times I’ve stopped trying. I can’t name a trend or movement in culture that I saw coming. The one thing I have learned about the future is that the best place to get a vision of it is from what was revealed to us in the past.
This Sunday at Grace Community Church, we will let Isaiah 60 be our guide to the future.
The future means different things to each of us, but the commonality of thinking about the future is that we are usually referring to something about our lives like education, career, family, health, retirement, and death. At times of war, economic instability, and cultural clashes, we broaden our thinking about the future beyond our personal lives to a more global perspective, but we are usually thinking about the near future while we are still alive.
It is a good thing to think about the future in this way, it’s just not the only or the most important way to think. Here are three thoughts on this Friday about the final future from Isaiah 60.
The future belongs to the Lord and his people. Today, it may seem like the future belongs to the strong, the prepared, and the visionaries. In the short term that may be \ the case. But Isaiah tells us in no uncertain terms that the future is the Lord’s. In the end, it is his name and fame that all will acknowledge. Because he is gracious, the end will include his people who trust in him.
The future will be glory for the Lord’s people. The people who are with the Lord in the future will experience his glorious presence in a way that is described as light. The glory of the Lord will be on his people in his new city in such radiance that there will be no need for sun or moon. Glorious light will be the atmosphere of our final fellowship with Christ.
The future will come to pass by the Lord himself. The vision of God’s future glory on his people in Isaiah 60 ends with these words, “I am the Lord, in its time I will hasten it.” God will do it.
This week, while meditating on this great chapter of the Bible, I asked myself a few basic life-determining questions. Do I believe in the future revealed in Isaiah 60 and in all the Bible? If so, what difference does that future make in my life today? That’s something to prayerfully consider.
This weekend read Isaiah 60, and include Hebrews 11. You will be encouraged.
-Scott