“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be Shaken, let us show gratitude, and offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship with reverence and awe“ (Hebrews 12:28, AMP).
Many schools of psychology teach the projection of the present into the future as a technique for overcoming a crisis. Seeing the present as it will look in five or ten years from now helps us have a different perspective about what seems unbearable today. Everything changes in size and importance as time passes. Today’s text offers us this alternative. The chapter begins with a call to find strength through comparing your troubles with those that Jesus experienced. It ends by describing God’s people in possession of their eternal inheritance. Contemplating that kingdom of the future enables you to bear up any trial. It gives us reasons to live according to God’s will.
Our life here is a training school for citizens of the heavenly kingdom. Looking at that future full of splendor changes our perspective of our current reality. It changes the order of our priorities and our value system. It also invites us to be grateful. Here are some reasons for gratitude: God answers our prayers ‘It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear» (Isaiah 65:24). He satisfies our needs: «Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s» (Psalm 103:5). He protects and defends us: “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:6).
Make a written list each day of ten things you are grateful for. A grateful heart does not have room for resentment, criticism, sadness, or complaints. When you are grateful, you show your loyalty to God. The most powerful reason the author of Hebrews tells us to be grateful is that in spite of our iniquity, we have not been consumed. God is a consuming fire (see Hebrews 12:29).
The original word for fear that is used in Hebrews 12:28 is eulâbeia, reverent fear of God. Those who are careless about reverencing Him will experience the consuming fire: “ ‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘that will leave them neither root nor branch’ ” (Malachi 4:1). “As we learn more and more of what man is, of what we ourselves are in God’s sight, we shall fear and tremble before Him.”—The Upward Look, p. 321, November 5.
Taken from: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2023 “DAUGHTER OF MINE” Do Not Be Afraid From: Arsenia Fernandez-Uckele Collaborators: Xiomara Perdomo & Esteban Cortes