"I love the sense of satisfaction that I get when I’ve done a swimming workout or race, and know that I gave my whole being and heart to God in every moment of the swim. It’s the best worship I can offer him."

Penny Heyns

Eternity in our hearts

As I write this email, I have reservations about creating doctrine out of one verse and also about creating doctrine out of Ecclesiastes, not the easiest book to understand! But as I read Ecclesiastes 3 last week I was really struck by this statement that I had never noticed before.

It is quite a thought that God has placed eternity in our hearts. What does that mean? Perhaps that he has given us an awareness that there is more than this transient world and a hope that we can one day find a fulfillment not afforded in this world, a knowledge that there is something more to life than what we can see and experience in the here and now. Unlike animals, we have thoughts of immortality. We normally do not want to die. Yet a recent survey of people in the UK revealed that most people did not want to live forever. I think that tells you something about their understanding of eternal life. Grundhog Day for ever is a not an attractive prospect!

As Christians we know that God has put into our hearts a desire for eternity, a desire for something different than just this life. That is why we can look forward to life after death. That is also why the things of this life cannot fully satisfy. God has designed us for eternity, and that is what we should be seeking and pursuing with our lives, because that is what will truly satisfy.As God reveals Himself to us, to live eternally with Him and to be like Him become major desires for us.

In sport writers sometimes refer to the stars and legends as “immortal” but they are not – not in the sense that the sportswriter means at any rate. Real immortality can only be given by God as we trust in Jesus. That is the immortality that we should seek – in sport and in life.

Finally a reminder of God’s promise to Jeremiah “I have loved you with an everlasting love”.(Jeremiah 31:3). Only God can make everlasting promises.

Sources of the above include

https://www.gotquestions.org/
https://www.bibletools.org
http://gbcdelta.org

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