Affections Set Above
Colossians 3:1-4
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory."
So many people in our day are struggling with feelings of depression, discouragement, discontent, and doubt. Christians are not immune from these feelings. Though we have hope in the Lord, we still have problems just like those around us. The pains of life hurt just as much for a believer as they do for the unsaved. The difference is that as Christians we have the divine resources available to us that allow us to deal with them in a different way. When our affections are set on the eternal, we remember that our life is hid with Christ in God. Although we still care about the people around us and still feel the pains that afflict us, we are not defined by them, nor are we held under them.
The English Puritan Richard Baxter wrote, “A heavenly mind is a joyful mind; this is the nearest and truest way to live a life of comfort, and without this you must need be uncomfortable. Can a man be at a fire and not be warm; or in the sunshine and not have light? Can your heart be in heaven, and not have comfort? [On the other hand,] what could make such frozen, uncomfortable Christians but living so far as they do from heaven?… O Christian, get above. Believe it, that region is warmer than this below.”
The more time that we spend with the Lord in His Word and in prayer, the more our thoughts, emotions, and interests will be aligned with the things of God. And the more our affections and desires are oriented toward Him, the less the pains of this world will consume our focus. The Bible tells us Jesus “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2).
Growth Principle:
The more in tune with Heaven our hearts are, the more our lives will reflect God's character to those around us.