“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” – Luke 15:10
As humans, we tend to underestimate the level of celebration in heaven when a person repents of their sins and trusts in Jesus for salvation. Jesus tells three parables in Luke 15 to help us understand how important reaching those far from God is to Him. God and His angels rejoice to an unimaginable extent when one person bearing His image moves off the highway to hell and onto the narrow path of salvation. There’s an incredible party in heaven every time a sinner becomes new creation in Christ. Every time a rebel lays down his or her weapons and becomes an adopted child of God. Every time!
If we understood how important and exciting this was in the heavenly realms, we’d make it a much higher priority in our lives. Most Christians live lives that prioritize themselves or other Christians. That’s what we think about, enjoy, and invest in. These three parables invite us to turn our priorities upside down. They encourage us to chase after the lost sheep. To drop everything and hunt for the lost coin. To run to the lost child. Heaven is desperate to reach people with the Gospel and bring them into new life in Jesus Christ. Are you?
A life aligned to the priorities of heaven would radically change how time, energy, and money is spent. It would prioritize connecting with, serving, and sharing Christ with those who don’t know Him. It would prioritize missions and particularly missions to unreached and frontier ethnic groups with no existing Christian witness. It would invest prayer, care, thought, time, money, and travel into the growth of God’s Kingdom rather than our own kingdoms or even our established churches. Is your life well-aligned to the priorities of heaven? #FollowJesus