“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Colossians 3:1-2

Where does the focus of our “affection,” our hearts, our minds need to be? Always aimed towards the things of Heaven, of course!

In their “wisdom,” some steeped in too much religion and not enough Scripture have told us that we don’t need to be so “Heavenly minded that we can’t be any Earthly good.” That seems to contradict the advice of the Holy Spirit through Paul written to the Colossians. Maybe the Holy Spirit and Paul knew what we have failed to grasp over the years—that the only way to be of any real “Earthly good” is to be more “Heavenly” minded!

Last week I shared with you an experience my brother and I shared toward the end of this past summer. It was an amazing day of driving fast cars on a historic racetrack. “Bucket List” item for both of us for sure, and a day neither of us will ever forget. Now, as I shared with you last week, during that day of fast driving and hard braking, the Lord reminded me of an important truth about this life and successfully following him.

It was during that morning’s race driver education class in which one of the instructors mentioned the importance of focus on the racetrack. He stated that as we were driving, we needed to look where we wanted to go, the next turn ahead, not where we were at the moment. Then he said that as we are out on the track, we may hear the instructors over the radio telling us to “lift up our eyes” or to “get our heads up” and look where we need to go on our line.

Those phrases sounded way too familiar to a fella who had grown up in church! I was immediately reminded of where our perspectives should be in this life if we are to successfully follow the Lord. We need to keep our attention, our focus, our “affection” on where we are heading, not on all the nonsense going on around us.

Brothers and sisters, the more we are mindful of Heavenly things, of our relationship with the Lord, of where we are heading after this life is over, the better we will stay on track to get there. A Heavenly focus keeps us on the right “line.” With that said, what specifically among the “Heavenly things” should be the center of our focus? Well, what’s ahead of us in that best line?

Firstly, as a Heavenly focus would infer, Heaven of course! Heaven is a literal place, friends, and it’s the future homebase for every child of God. If you’ve made Jesus your savior, you’re going there some day. What a travel destination to look forward to! Heaven is the “city” and the “country” that the Old Testament saints were looking for, as relayed in Hebrews 11. It’s the capital of God, soon to be populated with His children of every race and tongue, as described in Revelation 21! When you are continually reminded of the good you have coming soon, it sure helps to shake off those “blue” Mondays!

Secondly, we need to keep our eyes on our day of judgment before the Lord. You do realize that all of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for the things said and done in this life, right? Thankfully, as believers in Jesus, the sins we have committed that would have condemned us to a death sentence in Hell have been washed clean in his blood and forgiven completely. Yet, there is still a matter of our obedience to God’s call and to living by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.

II Corinthians 5:10 speaks of receiving things done in this body. Other passages in the Word of God speak of eternal rewards lost or gained by our obedience lived here during our time on this planet.

Knowing that how we live still matters to the Lord, and that how we live here does affect our future to some degree should motivate us all to keep our eyes on the prize of the good things we have to come!

Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.