Written ~ 10-12-2023
Psalm 16:11
11 “You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of Your presence
and the pleasures of living with You forever.”
Leave it to David to encapsulate the entire essence of what it is to be a believer in one short verse!
When I read this verse, I said to myself, “Well, that’s just it, isn’t it?” Jesus shows us the way to life because He is Life. Walking alongside the Lord each and every day brings us joy and the remarkable thing is we can know and feel His presence in our lives! By accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior we now have the assurance we will live in Heaven with Him for eternity.
“You will show me the way of life…”
Jesus is our way to Life, not just Life, but Eternal Life. Let’s explore what the New Testament has to say about life in Jesus.
John 3:15, 16 and 36
15 “…so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. 16 For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life…”
John 6:35, 47-48
35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry again… 47 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 Yes, I am the bread of life!”
John 11:25-26
25 Jesus told her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die…”
John 17:3
1 After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so He can give glory back to You. 2 For You have given Him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one You have given Him. 3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the One You sent to earth.”
Let’s rejoice in the fact that when we give our hearts to the Lord, we have the assurance of life eternal. Our human brains may not have the capacity to understand the magnitude of that, but it’s pretty awesome to know that when a believer takes their last breathe their spirit is immediately in the presence of Jesus. That one truth gives us hope and joy knowing we will have eternity in Heaven. So even though we may go through trials and troubling situations while here on earth, it is for such a short period of time, really it is. And God wants us to live with His abundant joy, no matter what we are going through.
“…granting me the joy of Your presence…”
When Jesus Christ is part of our lives, joy bubbles up from within and sometimes it’s hard to explain! But having the Lord’s presence in our lives is exciting! In Acts 2:25-28, the Apostle Peter actually quotes David in his sermon…
25 “…I see that the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me.
26 No wonder my heart is glad, and my tongue shouts His praises! My body rests in hope.
27 For You will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.
28 You have shown me the way of life, and You will fill me with the joy of Your presence…”
The presence of the Lord in your life can be a very powerful thing! Knowing Jesus is with you everywhere you go, helps us to live our lives worthy of being called a child of God. In Romans 13:14 it says,
“…clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.”
Because we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have been washed clean with the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, this gives us the boldness and courage to go to the Father in heaven with all of our requests.
Hebrews 10:22 says,
“…let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”
Our verse in Psalms says that God grants to us joy in His presence. I really can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t want joy in their lives! Especially if we have been washed by the blood of Jesus, we have experienced His presence, so, let’s apply what Hebrews 10:23 says to our own lives!
“Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm (validate, confirm), for God can be trusted to keep His promise.”
When we hold tightly to the hope and joy we find in the presence of the Lord, it not only helps us get through the difficult moments, but it also steers us from the evil in the world, it creates a completely different attitude towards life! With joy we have hope after death, with the presence of God we have hope to get through anything life throws our way. I love what it says in the last two verses of Jude…
24 “Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault.
25 All glory to Him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time!”
This is Who we put our trust in! This is Who we will spend Eternity with! The Almighty God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord! Awesome!
The last part of our verse in Psalms says,
“…the pleasures of living with You forever.”
That’s taken from the New Living Translation (NLT), look how that statement is translated in the World English Bible (WEB),
“In Your Right Hand there are pleasures forever more.”
When we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, we now have Him walking through life with us, right by our side, every step. As we walk with Christ, He will show us the beautiful, wonderful treasures of this world. He will delight us in ways we couldn’t imagine, we just have to be sensitive to His voice. And those things that delight us here on earth are in no comparison to what we have waiting for us in Heaven! In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 17 and 18 it says,
17 “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we see now; rather, we fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
One of the wonderful promises given to the believer is life after death, Eternity in Heaven!
1 Thessalonians 5:10 says,
“Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when He returns, we can live with Him forever.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17 says,
16 “For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.”
I don’t know about you, but living forever with the Lord in Heaven, sounds pretty awesome! With all confidence ~ By believing, trusting, accepting what the Word of God says – this is our hope, this is our future…
1 Peter 1:21-23…
21 “Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great glory.
22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.
23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.”
That’s the hope that I have, even though this body of mine will die one day, I have the confidence of knowing when I breathe my last, I will be in the presence of my Almighty God and my Savior, Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 4:6 says,
6 “That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead, so although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.”
1 John 2:17 says,
17 “…this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”
Lastly, this is what King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11…
11 “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
So no matter if you’re one who doesn’t want to believe in God or you decide not to chose Salvation through Jesus Christ, you know there is something in the depths of your soul that there has got to be more to “life.” There is reason for that, it was pointed out to us in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “…God has planted eternity in the human heart…” so no matter how hard you try to talk yourself out of the existence of God, He will continue to call you by name and one of these days, you might just answer! And what joy will erupt in Heaven when you do! The last set of verses I want to share is from 1 John chapter 5 verses 11-13,
11 “And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.
13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.
If you’re ready to make that commitment to Christ, please say the following prayer with all sincerity, at that every moment you will be welcomed into the family of God!
Dear Jesus, You know my heart, all the things I have done and said. Please forgive me for my unbelief. Please forgive me for all of my sins. I believe You are the Son of God. I believe You came to earth to die on the cross for my sins. I believe You rose from the dead to give me freedom from sin and death. By faith through believing in Who You Are, I accept You as my Lord and Savior. Come into my life, cleanse this heart of mine, white as snow. Help me not to doubt any longer and breathe life into me, fill me with Your light. Thank You Jesus! Amen.
If you solemnly prayed this prayer, tell at least one person, so they can share in your joy!! I rejoice with you! All the angels in Heaven rejoice with you! And just as Jesus said, “Peace be with you.”
~AMEN~
For further study, I am adding Scriptures I just didn’t have the chance to write out and talk about… I hope you’ll take the time to dig into your Bible and look up each of these verses! If you are brand new to reading the Bible, I would suggest starting with the Book of John in the New Testament. If you do not have a Bible, download a Bible app on your phone or tablet to get you started, I use The New Living Translation, it’s one of the easiest translations to understand!
John 4:14 ~ John 5:24 ~ John 6:27 ~ John 6:40 ~ John 6:63 ~ John 10:28
Romans 6:22-23 ~ 2 Corinthians 5:1
1 Timothy 1:16 ~ Titus 1:2
1 John 1:1-2 ~ 1 John 4:9-10
God Bless You from the sincerity of my deepest heartfelt prayers.