Devotionals

Heaven Is Not Cheap

by Antje Hill
09/19/13
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

I came across one of John Powell’s books recently that I had bought at a little used bookstore.  It had been tucked away and I had failed to read it.  It didn't take long to become totally involved with Mr. Powell's writing.  He told of a trip that he had taken to Germany a few years ago.  The cleaning lady assigned to his room was an elderly woman that worked relentlessly to clean every nook and cranny.  Every time he left the room, she cleaned it, not just a superficial cleaning.  She would wax the floors and polish the furniture.  On one occasion when Mr. Powell left for a short walk, he came back to find "Schwester" on her knees, putting a final sheen on her waxing job.  He laughingly teased her:  "You work too much!"  The woman straightened up, still kneeling, and looked at him sternly, bordering on severity, and said, "Heaven isn't cheap, you know!"Powell concluded that more than likely she was educated to believe that life was supposed to be an ordeal, the price of eternal bliss, that heaven must be bought and it is not cheap."

Do you believe goodness will secure your place in heaven someday?  Many good, honest people believe God tends to favor people when they are "good". Thank goodness, the bible says God's love is not dependent upon my actions.  It is 100% a gift. However, there is not much value placed on"freebies". We want to earn it. Then we can pat our self on the back and say, "Look what I've accomplished." As for salvation, God's son, did it all.  No one can boast.  As the little cleaning lady in the story says, "Heaven isn't cheap."  But the price has already been paid. 

The bible teaches us to love others, to be joyful, to be at peace, to be kind, good and patient. But this life style is the result of having Jesus Christ in our life, not to earn His love and acceptance.  His wild, crazy, never-ending, life-changing, unconditional love for us makes us want to please Him.  As for perfection, He is that for us!  All He wants is a relationship with us. In the process of that relationship, we change! We cannot help it! That is what unconditional love does for humans.

The decision to be a Jesus follower is the best one we can ever make in our life and it lasts for more than a lifetime.

                              “For by grace you have been saved through   faith, and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9