Partakers of the divine nature. God has shared of himself. Unlike other creatures in creation man has been created in the image of God. We have been given a soul, a spirit. In Ecclesiastes, “God has set eternity in the hearts of man.” We can only understand what this means to us personally if we are truly thankful for God’s grace in bringing His power to bear on our life to transform us, that we may have the eyes of our hearts opened to truly know God, and we experience joy and hope from the eternal promises of God. Then we can feast on the gift of God’s nature that has been given to us.
God has not and will never make us like Him because we are not God and will never be God. But because of His great love for us and the redemption in Christ Jesus God gives us in our new life as a believer his nature. Some parts of that nature that are shared:
Wisdom, to know God and to live a life applying this knowledge in our journey home.
Joy, to have an unshakeable sense of well-being no matter the circumstances or the obstacles we face on our journey home.
Peace, to be at rest, free from worry, and anxiety trusting in God and to know his care and protection over us as we travel on our journey home.
Happiness, to experience the pleasure of happiness in life moments and to long for the day when our journey ends and we will have happiness forever with God.
Love, to be loved in such a perfect way by God, to know the sacrifice of His love in Jesus, and to share that love with others we meet on our journey home.
In this journey we often overlook the gifts of God’s divine nature that are given to people, that are transformed and shaped when we believe in Jesus as our Savior, and that continue to grow and shape us day by day. We see these things now, but we will understand and know them more fully when enter eternity.
One of the natures of God that he has given to all is immortality. Eternity will happen for all. Some who have rejected God will enter eternity without God and will never know the fullness of God’s nature and how he as given Himself to those who believe.
Others who have believed in Jesus will enter eternity seeing and knowing the fullness of God’s nature and how they reflect that nature in themselves.
There is an old hymn sung in some churches that captures how We’ll Understand it Better By and By. The refrain goes:
By and by when the morning comes,
When the saints of God are gathered home,
We will tell the story how we’ve overcome;
For we’ll understand it better by and by.
Let your thanks this day equal the magnitude of God’s gift to you.
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