I really like Revelation 4:1: “There before me was a door standing open in heaven.” Isn’t that grand? God inviting us to live with him in heaven! Then, John heard the voice of the Lord inviting him to “come up here.”
True, this verse described God bringing John to heaven to show him the book of Revelation. But as I read this verse recently I saw another application. We are humans who live on earth who can choose to keep our hearts and minds set on things above. “Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” Then Paul proceeded to declare that we should “set your mind on things above not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2).
God invites us to extremely healthy meditation. Our meditation tremendously affects our mental, physical and spiritual health. So brother Paul urges us to set our attention on things above not on things on the earth. It doesn’t mean that you ignore what’s going on around us on earth. No, we are aware of earthly events but refuse to allow earthly events to fill us with fear and remove our thoughts from the Lord and his Word. We purposefully and deliberately expose our minds to God’s Word by consistently reading it, hearing it taught and meditating on it. This Bible based meditation permeates us with better physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Yes, our bodies are earthly and susceptible to the effects of aging and sickness. But our spirits are not physical, so with our spirits we think on things above not on earthly things. As we do so, we become people who live on the earth without fear and anxiety. Our hearts overflow with joy at the prospect of knowing Jesus, being controlled by Jesus and led by him. “In all these things [on earth] we are more than conquerors through him who loved us,” Romans 8:37.
