“FOR HE HAS PREPARED FOR THEM A CITY.”
— Hebrews 11:16
God is designing and building a glorious city. Rome, Paris, and London cannot compare. The best of Hong Kong, Dubai, and Singapore have nothing on the New Jerusalem.
The city will be like a rare jewel, radiant, shining with the glory of God. It will be vast, the likes of which we’ve never seen, over a thousand mile across. Its walls will be made of jasper, and its streets of pure gold. The twelve foundations will be named after the apostles, and its twelve gates guarded by angels.
If God is preparing for heaven, shouldn’t we?
1. Every day we pursue intimacy with God prepares us for heaven. In the city to come, God will be our everlasting joy and delight. He’ll wipe away all our tears. Mourning, crying, and pain will be distant memories. Even death will die. And we will see his glory. Jesus will be highly exalted, his name above every other. Every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Pressing on to know Jesus now through his word and his Spirit will warm us up for heaven.
2. Every choice we make to grow in godliness prepares us for heaven. Our character deeply matters to God and to everyone we lead. Training our bodies has some value, but training in godliness “holds promise for the present life and the life to come.” Now is the time to partner with God in our sanctification. God’s greatest gift to us is himself. Our greatest gift to him is our surrender.
3. Every time we keep going when we’re tempted to give up prepares us for heaven. Our journey home won’t be easy. We are pilgrims passing through, travelers who haven’t reached our destination, strangers on the earth. Faith-filled endurance in trials is the narrow way home and it prepares for us “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
4. Every opportunity we take to share Jesus prepares us for heaven. There’s only one way home and it’s him who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Jesus is the door to entry. The guest list is the Lamb’s book of life. Now is the time to spread the King’s invitation and make friends for eternity.
5. Every step of faith prepares us for heaven. Faith is heaven’s currency on earth. Sight is it’s reward in heaven. Soon we will move to a better country, our true homeland. A great cloud of witnesses has already gone before us. Living for the things of earth is short-sighted. Living and giving for the things of heaven is what this life is all about.
6. Every act of generosity prepares us for heaven. Soon and very soon all of our earthly wealth and possessions will be given to another. But whatever we give in faith pleases God and stores up treasure in heaven that will be ours forever. Generosity works like Jim Elliot said so well, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
7. Every effort to think about heaven based on God’s word prepares us for heaven.The great heroes of our faith thought much of their future home. To them it was more than clouds and songs. It was more than unending life and perfect peace. Heaven was their next address, their forever home. God, in his kindness, has revealed his plans for our future so that we can ponder them and prepare for them.
The city of God is his grand finale! It’s where the Bible ends and eternity begins. It’s where heaven and earth meet. But heaven and earth don’t just meet in a place, they meet in a person. God himself is the centerpiece, the highlight, and the main attraction of heaven. Heaven is all about our God who gladly gives us himself… forever.
© John Rinehart 2025