We’ve been using the summer to reflect on how Jesus’ resurrection transforms our lives and what we need to do to enjoy His fullness of life. As we focused last week on persevering in faithfulness, this week’s devotion gives us a focal point on which to fix our eyes through life:

IN WORD Everyone has a blessed hope. For many, it’s a peaceful and prosperous retirement. Others have a more immediate desire to live in the perfect setup—the right location, the right vocation, the right partner to share it with . . . the right everything. In fact, most of us spend at least some of our time and energy trying to bring the blessed hope into the present.
As Proverbs 13:12 tells us, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” We’re tired of sick hearts. We want the tree of life as soon as we can get it. That’s why waiting is so hard. There’s a gap between the promise of a future blessing and the blessing itself—a very long one sometimes—and the interim period can be excruciating. But there’s design in that delay.
God uses the hope of future blessings to shape how we live. When we’re looking forward to nothing in particular, we become aimless. But when our eye is on the prize, we live accordingly. We discipline ourselves to press ahead, we develop the characteristics we will need in order to fit the calling, and we grow into the future God has for us as He increases our capacity to receive it.
We become fit for the blessing by longing for it. Paul writes of the ultimate blessed hope. It’s “the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” and it shapes who we are today. How? It causes us to say no to ungodliness and to live uprightly in this present age (v. 11). We have an amazing knack for finding the right road when our sights are truly set on a goal. Our perspective defines how we live.
IN DEED It’s extremely important to guard your perspective. A clear focus on the blessed hope you’ve been promised will profoundly affect what you do today. A lack of focus will also profoundly affect what you do today, but for the worse. Fix your eyes on the goal, and your feet will find the right path. “I thank You, O Lord, that You have so set eternity within my heart that no earthly thing can ever satisfy me wholly.” —John Baillie (in “God With Us” by Chris Tiegreen)

In hiking, one is taught that the way to avoid going around in circles is to set a fixed point ahead and keep on pressing toward it. In the same way, to avoid getting lost in the world, we need to fix our eyes on eternity and God’s plans for us.
One of the people in the Bible that kept his eyes fixed on God’s plans was Joseph. Regardless of the trials he faced, Joseph trusted that God was working all things out for good. Take time to read Genesis 37 – 50 this week and see how Joseph kept the faith to finally experience the fulfillment of God’s designs for him (50:19-21). Then ask the Holy Spirit to grant you the same steadfastness to finish life well. Have a blessed week! - from Singapore, Pastor Sam