CONSUMED BY THE SUBSTITUTE

(Post by: Lilly Hobbs)

I recently had a conversation with someone about whether or not there will be entertainment, food, or other kinds of things we have here on Earth, in Heaven. The person that I was talking to said he thought there would probably be some different forms of fun and entertainment in Heaven, since God is not boring.

As we discussed this topic further, he asked what I thought about entertainment in Heaven. Almost immediately, the Lord reminded me of John 15:11 which says, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

Now, I want you to get what Jesus means by this. This particular verse, (John 15:11) comes right after the story about the vine and its branches, the good fruit and the bad fruit. In this illustration of the vine and the branches, God basically gives us the command to “remain” in Him, and whoever doesn’t will be thrown aside to wither (see John 15:6).

The point that I am trying to make here is that Jesus should be all we need. Our joy is complete when we remain in Him.

We shouldn’t need the games, the merchandise, or the pizza to be happy or fulfilled. Now, these things aren’t necessarily bad, and I think Jesus does want us to enjoy life. I, myself, love a good chai tea latte from time to time. But we must learn that our contentment in Jesus is enough and always will be.

Leonard Ravenhill once said this, “Entertainment is the devil’s substitute for joy. The more joy you have in the Lord, the less entertainment you will need.”   

Y’all, I believe that entertainment specifically is one of the main reasons people are missing church a lot more than they used to. I believe this is why we are running all over the place all the time. It’s the reason we don’t have peace, and the list could go on and on.  

Let’s face the facts: The enemy has tricked and fooled us so well in the area of entertainment, that he’s gotten us so far from Jesus in the process.

Guess what? It’s our fault! We have shot ourselves in the foot here. But the crazy thing is, we wonder why it hurts. We complain about not feeling close to Jesus, but we are the ones who sign our names on every activity list and are never available to spend time with Him.

Yet, Jesus gives us the simple answer in John 15:11 to fix all of the issues I just listed. He tells us that He is all we need in life. Our joy is made complete when we remain in Him.

So, to make it plain, I really don’t know if there will be entertainment in Heaven. I don’t. But what I do know is that Jesus will be there. Maybe we should focus on the one thing we know will be in Heaven?

Jesus.

Post about Him. Talk about Him. Share about Him with the people you know. Remain in Him. He is your source of life.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” {Isaiah 26:3}

SO WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= How did you relate with this post?

= Do you find it hard to “remain” in Jesus?

=What are you going to do differently?