Steps To Prepare For Our Journey To Heaven

Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
–Psalm 90:12

We have been talking about practical steps we can take to prepare for our journey to Heaven. Last week, we looked at the first three steps. First of all, make sure you have a valid passport. If you travel to a foreign country, you cannot get in without the right documentation. And the same thing is true when you enter that new country called Heaven. You need a spiritual passport that will allow you to enter Heaven: a heart that is stamped with the word “Forgiven.” Only forgiven people enter Heaven. Second, live with a destination mind-set. As Christians, we live in two worlds at the same time. We are residents of earth with very real responsibilities that God has given us to fulfill. But we also are citizens of Heaven. While we are here, we are to be making preparations for there. Third, to prepare for Heaven, refuse to allow your departure to paralyze you with fear. There is no need for Christians to fear death. No Christian dies prematurely. God has a definite time for your departure, and nobody leaves this life one second before God’s appointed time. Death is a necessary transition to Heaven. It is a separation of our spirit from our old body so that we can put on our new body designed for this new world.

Now, let’s look at the fourth way to prepare for Heaven: Make the most of your time on earth.

While God has allotted a different number of years for every one of us in this life, in Psalm 90, Moses said there is an average life span for most people. He said, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away. . . . So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (90:10, 12).

I will never forget the first time I heard someone speak on these verses. I was a freshman in college at Baylor University sitting in an orientation chapel, pining for my girlfriend (now my wife), who was 100 miles away at the University of Texas. It would be two weeks until I saw her, and Moses’ observation about the brevity of time seemed profoundly untrue. Time moved like molasses back then! Yet the older I get, the more I understand what Moses was saying. As one wag put it, “Life is like a roll of toilet paper–the closer you get to the end, the more quickly it goes.” You have discovered that, haven’t you? That is what Moses was saying, just a little more eloquently. He said, “Teach us to number our days.”

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “How Can I Prepare For My Journey To Heaven?” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2016.

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.lockman.org)