“And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.…. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:18-19,12).

Hebrews warns the New Testament church to heed Israel’s example. Consider what happened to the unbelieving generation who were turned back into the wilderness. God told them pointedly that his hand would be against them. From then on, all they would know is distress and leanness of soul. They wouldn’t see his glory. Instead, they would become focused on their own problems and consumed by their own lusts.

That’s exactly what happens with all unbelieving people: They end up consumed with their own welfare. They have no vision, no sense of God’s presence, and no prayer life. They no longer care about their neighbors, or a lost world, or eventually even their friends. Instead, the entire focus of their lives is on their problems, their troubles, their illnesses. They go from one crisis to another, shut up in their own pain and suffering. And their days are filled with confusion, strife, envy and division.

For thirty-eight years, Moses watched as, one by one, every Israelite in the unbelieving generation died. As he looked back on those who wasted their lives away in the wilderness, he saw that everything God had warned about had happened. “The hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them until they were consumed” (see Deuteronomy 2). God suspended his eternal purpose for Israel for all those years.

Likewise today, some Christians are content to merely exist until they die. They don’t want to risk anything, to believe God, to grow or mature. They refuse to believe his Word, and have become hardened in their unbelief. Now they’re just living to die.

Beloved, you will only see His glory when you walk in obedience. Choose that path and find life everlasting!

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Many believers quote this verse daily, applying it to their trials and tribulations. Yet the context in which Paul speaks it suggests a deeper meaning. Just two verses earlier, Paul states, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (15:54-55).

Paul was speaking eloquently about his longing for heaven. He wrote, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2).

According to Paul, heaven—being in the Lord’s presence for all eternity—is something we are to desire with all our hearts.

As I ponder these things, a glorious picture begins to emerge. First, I imagine Jesus’ description of a huge gathering, when the angels “gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31). When all these multitudes have been gathered, I picture a great victory march taking place in heaven with millions of glorified children singing hosannas to the Lord, the way children once did in the temple.

Then come all the martyrs. Those who once cried for justice on the earth now cry, “Holy, holy, holy!” All will be dancing with joy, crying, “Victory, victory in Jesus!”

Then a mighty roar comes forth, a sound never before heard. It is the church of Jesus Christ with multitudes from all nations and tribes.

Maybe this all sounds farfetched to you, but Paul himself testified about it. When the faithful apostle was caught up into heaven, he “was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Corinthians 12:4). Paul said he was staggered at what he heard there. I believe these were the very sounds he heard. He was given a preview of the singing and praising of God by those who will be rejoicing in his presence, their bodies made whole, their souls filled with joy and peace. It was a sound so glorious that Paul could hear it but not repeat it.

Jesus confronted the Laodicean church, which represented the Church of the end times. He gave her this warning that reaches out across the centuries to speak to you and me today: “If you don’t repent, I will spew you out of My mouth” (see Revelation 3:16). What incredible words!

What is the crime, the unimaginable sin committed by the modern Church? Listen to the words of the One who, above all, seeks our faith, trust and surrender: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. . . Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into his house and have dine with him and he with Me” (Revelation 3:15, 19-20).

This passage of Scripture, so often quoted, is not addressing a lost world in need of “letting Jesus in.” Rather, it directly and solemnly is a call to modern believers who are lazily lying on the bed of indifference, quite happy with themselves and the portion they have.

This generation has been diabolically blinded to the spiritual revelation that without a burning faith it is impossible to please Him. Jesus is literally and dramatically standing outside the door of a self-sufficient Church that trusts in methods, strategies and “cutting edge” paradigm shifts and tactics borrowed from the secular marketplace. He is crying out, “Let me in! Repent! Turn away from these broken cisterns that offer no living water! I am calling for a people who will walk in faith, whose trust and confidence will hold solely to My promises. I long for a people whose faith will allow them to see the invisible, believe the unbelievable, and receive the impossible!”

Satan has a strategy to deceive believers and make them doubt the faithfulness of God in answering prayer. He would have us believe that God has shut His ears to our cries and left us to work things out for ourselves.

A great tragedy in the Church today is that so few believe in the power and effectiveness of prayer. Without meaning to blaspheme, multitudes of God’s people can be heard complaining, “I pray but I get no answers. I’ve prayed so hard for so long without any results. All I want is a little evidence that God is changing things. How long must I wait?” These believers no longer visit their secret place of prayer because they are convinced that their petitions, born in prayer, are somewhere miscarried at His throne. Others are convinced that only “spiritual giants” can get their prayers through to God.

In all honesty, many saints of God struggle with doubts: “If God’s ear is open to my diligent prayer, why is there such little evidence of His answering?” Have you been praying a certain prayer for a long time without receiving an answer? Have even years gone by and still you wait, hoping . . . yet wondering?

Let’s be careful not to charge God with being slothful, unconcerned about our needs and petitions, as Job did. Job complained, “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me” (Job 30:20, ESV).

Job’s vision of God’s faithfulness was clouded by his present difficulties, and he ended up accusing God of forgetting him.

It is time for Christians to take an honest look at the reasons our prayers are aborted. We might be guilty of charging God with neglect when all along our own behavior is responsible.

“Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land” (Psalm 37:34).

Jesus knew the disciples needed the kind of peace that would see them through any and all situations. He told his disciples, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). This word had to amaze the disciples. In their eyes, it was almost an unbelievable promise: Christ’s peace was to become their peace.

These twelve men had marveled at the peace they had witnessed in Jesus for the past three years. Their Master was never afraid. He was always calm, never ruffled by any circumstance.

We know that Christ was capable of spiritual anger. At times he was stirred, and he knew how to weep. But he led his life on earth as a man at peace. He had peace with the Father, peace in the face of temptation, peace in times of rejection and mockery. He even had peace during storms at sea, sleeping on the deck of the boat while others trembled with terror.

Now Jesus was promising these men the very same peace. When they heard this, the disciples must have looked at each other in wonder: “You mean, we’re going to have the same peace that he has? This is incredible.”

Jesus added, “not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27). This wasn’t going to be the so-called peace of a numb, zoned-out society. Nor would it be the temporary peace of the rich and famous, who try to purchase peace of mind with material things. No, this was the very peace of Christ himself, a peace that surpasses all human understanding.

When Christ promised the disciples his peace, it was as if he was saying to them and to us today: “I know you don’t understand the times you face. You don’t comprehend the Cross and the suffering I am about to face. But I want to bring your heart into a place of peace. You won’t be able to face what is coming without having my enduring peace in you. You must have my peace.”

Contentment was a huge test in Paul’s life. After all, God said he would use him mightily: “He is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). When Paul first received this commission, “straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God” (9:20).

Paul was in no hurry to see everything fulfilled in his lifetime. He knew he had an ironclad promise from God, and he clung to it. For the present moment, he was content to minister wherever he was: witnessing to a jailer, to a sailor, to a few women on a riverbank. This man had a worldwide commission, yet he was faithful to testify one-on-one.

Nor was Paul jealous of younger men who seemed to pass him by. While they traveled the world winning Jews and Gentiles to Christ, Paul sat in prison. He had to listen to reports of great crowds being converted by men he’d battled with over the gospel of grace. Yet Paul didn’t envy those men. He knew that a Christ-surrendered man knows how to abase as well as abound: “Godliness with contentment is great gain…and having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Timothy 6:6, 8).

The world today might say to Paul, “You are at the end of your life now. Yet you have no savings, no investments. All you have is a change of clothes.” I know what Paul’s answer would be: “Oh, but I’ve won Christ. I tell you, I’m the winner. I’ve found the pearl of great price. Jesus granted me the power to lay down everything. Well, I laid it all down, and now a crown awaits me. I have only one goal in this life: to see my Jesus, face to face.”

All the sufferings of this present time can’t be compared with the joy that awaits you.