Two young, good looking men knocked on the door of a certain householder and asked, “Would you like to go to heaven?” The householder thought for a minute, then asked, “Will you two be there?” “Oh most definitely,” came the hearty reply. “Then I don’t want to go.”
Many Christians think that getting saved is about learning how to get to heaven. When God saves in the Bible, however, it rarely has to do with heaven. Salvation almost always points toward some new way of living in the world today.
Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are asking for this salvation to happen. Every week, when we repeat the Lord’s Prayer, every time we say it, we are asking for salvation to come to us.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven…
Think about that for a moment; Jesus is asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray and he doesn’t say a single word about how to get to heaven. He doesn’t tell them what they must do to get saved. He tells them to pray for God’s ways to become our ways, here on earth, today, not tomorrow, not next year or in some future time, but here, today.
When God saves it almost always has to do with you and your life in the here and now. Perhaps the clearest way to experience that saving act is to simply trust God, to seek the way and will of God in all that you do.
When Jesus announces that someone is being saved, it is the declaration of a physical and spiritual transformation of that person in this moment, in this world, in the here and now. Jesus is standing in line with his Hebrew brothers and sisters who taught that Shalom, that is peace and wellbeing and justice for all, is what salvation is about. He is not presenting them something new as much as reminding them of what God has been saying all along.
Take a moment right now and recite the Lord’s Prayer. Then ask yourself, what is God’s will for my life, for this day, for this moment? The answer may not be easy but I promise it will set the tone for your day and maybe even the rest of your life!
Grace and peace to you,
