Colossians 1:5

Our hope in Christ for the future is the mainspring and the mainstay of our joy here. It will animate our hearts to think often of heaven, for all that we can desire is promised there. Here we are weary and worn out by toil, but there is the land of rest where the sweat of labour will no longer moisten the worker’s brow, and fatigue will be forever banished.

To those who are weary and spent, the word “rest” is full of heaven. We are always in the field of battle; we are so tempted within, and so troubled by external enemies, that we have little or no peace; but in heaven we will enjoy the victory, when the banner will be waved aloft in triumph, and the sword will be sheathed, and we will hear our Captain say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We have suffered bereavement after bereavement, but we are going to the land of the immortal where graves are unknown things.

Here sin is a constant grief to us, but there we will be perfectly holy, for by no means will anything which defileth enter into that kingdom. Hemlock does not spring up in the furrows of celestial fields. Oh! is it not joy, that you are not to be in banishment forever, that you are not to dwell eternally in this wilderness, but will soon inherit Canaan?

Nevertheless, let it never be said of us that we are dreaming about the future and forgetting the present; let the future sanctify the present to highest uses. Through the Spirit of God, the hope of heaven is the most potent force for the production of virtue; it is a fountain of joyous effort, it is the cornerstone of cheerful holiness.

The man who has this hope in him goes about his work with vigour, for the joy of the Lord is his strength. He fights against temptation with ardour, for the hope of the next world repels the fiery darts of the adversary. He can labour without present reward, for he looks for a reward in the world to come.