Our Destiny in Christ Jesus!

“With minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” – 1 Peter 1:13, Philippians 3:18-21, 2 Corinthians 5:1 NIV

We should always set our hope on the kingdom of God, and continue to be holy by abiding to the Spirit of God (see 1 John 4:13) and becoming like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in every situation (see 1 Peter 2:21). This is because our destiny is to have eternal life in the kingdom of heaven with God, our Heavenly Father (Ephesians 4:6) – “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:8) This verse means that if we do not continue to be holy, then we CANNOT enter the kingdom of God; as Jesus makes clear when he said:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who DOES the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Therefore, since all of us are the children of God (1 John 3:1), we should FULLY abide the Holy Spirit to do the will of God until the end of the age (see 1 Peter 1:14-16), even though it is hard as Jesus warns us in Matthew 16:24-25:

Whoever wants to be my disciple MUST deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (1 Corinthians 15:58, Ephesians 2:10)