Bible Poetry Reading Plan: Job 39-40
Relationships in Heaven
Luke 16:9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then,
when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. (NLT)
When God created the world He stepped back and pronounced it very good. Yet, God said that
there was one thing that wasn’t good – that man was alone (Genesis 2:18). God designed us for
relationships not only with Himself but also with others. According to today’s verse, our Christian
friends in Heaven appear to be those whose lives we’ve touched on Earth now. If you gave to the
Christmas offering at church then someday there will be hundreds of people who have been helped
by the ministries that this offering was supporting who will run up to you and say “thank-you”. They
will throw their arms around you and you will enjoy companionship with them! Heaven is going to
be one big family in which all family members are friends and all friends are family members. Many
of us treasure our families but others have endured heartache from twisted family relationships.
In Heaven our relationships will be harmonious. What great news! Some people worry about
what kind of relationship they will have with their spouse in Heaven. On earth, people with good
marriages are each other’s best friends. There’s no reason to believe that you won’t be best
friends in Heaven too. The institution of marriage will end, having fulfilled its purpose but nothing in
Scripture hints that deep relationships between anybody in our lives will end. What about children?
You will still have relationships with your children in Heaven, assuming that they are saved.
Relationships matter to God, what we do here touches strings that vibrate for all eternity. There’s
every reason to believe that we’ll pick right up in Heaven with relationships from Earth. We’ll gain
new relationships too and we’ll deepen old ones. There is continuity between this life and the next
which suggests that our relationships and lives have eternal consequences. Paul speaks of his
anticipation of being with the Thessalonians and encourages them to look forward to rejoining their
loved ones in Heaven.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Who are some of the people whom you have invested time, money or energy into? Does it
encourage you that they will be your friends in Heaven? Does it make you want to invest more
into people?
2. Spend some time praying for lost loved ones. Your prayers matter, you have the potential to
be with these people for all of eternity, if they get saved! How does this motivate you to endure
faithfully in prayer?
3. Thank the Lord for His love of relationships, that there is no loneliness in Heaven but joy and
lots of friendships!
