Really Alive

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled Really Alive was written by Wynn Collier. Since it was the week after Easter, our five-year-old son Wyatt had heard plenty of resurrection talk. He always had questions, usually real stumpers.

I was driving, and he was buckled into the seat behind me. Wyatt peered out the window, deep in thought. Daddy, he said, pausing and preparing to ask me a tough one, when Jesus brings us back to life, are we going to be really alive or just alive in our heads? This is the question so many of us carry, whether or not we have the courage to speak it aloud. Is God really going to heal us? Is He really going to raise us from the dead?

Is He really going to keep all His promises? In Revelation chapter 21, the Apostle John describes our certain future as a new heaven and a new earth. In that holy city, God Himself will be with us and be our God. Because of Christ's victory, we're promised a future where there's no more tears, no evil arrayed against God and His people. In this good future, there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. In other words, in the future God promises, we'll be really alive.

We'll be so alive that our life now will seem a mere shadow. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Revelation chapter 21, verses one through seven. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then He said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without cost, from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. Let's pray. God, thank you for the promise that you will return someday and that we will be with you for all eternity. While we wait with that anticipation, may we share your love and forgiveness with others who need to know you so they may find the freedom and hope that we have found. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. I'm Stephen, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Mysteries.