Creator, Father, King #336

We live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

BILL GATES IS ROLLING in dough—and we’re not talking about the stuff you bake bread with.

Gates, the cofounder and former chairman and CEO of computer software giant Microsoft, is one of the world’s richest individuals, with an estimated net worth of $$939 billion in 2018, according to Forbes Magazine. In 2016, he announced most of his vast fortune would be going to charity when he died, rather than to his three children—Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe.

The inheritance of Gates’s children will certainly be nothing to laugh at, but it probably won’t compare to, say, what the Walton children—Jim, Alice, and Rob—inherited from their father, Sam, who bequeathed them control of the Walmart retail empire upon his death. In 2018, Forbes estimated each of Sam’s children was worth an estimated $45 billion or so. Then there’s billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who announced in 2014 that he would give his three children $2 billion each when he dies.

What’s It Mean?

What would you do if you inherited billions of dollars? Your mind is probably spinning with ideas. But money fades quickly and never truly satisfies. Once you die, what good is it?

There is a far greater inheritance awaiting every true follower of Christ. As spiritually adopted sons and daughters of the living God, believers await an eternal, “priceless inheritance,” as today’s verse says—one that is infinitely beyond monetary value. This everlasting treasure doesn’t change like the fluctuating stock market, cannot be stolen by thieves, and can’t decay (Matthew 6:19-20).

An inheritance is material possessions that are passed down from one generation to another, typically upon death. It’s something that is bequeathed because of familial relations.

Similarly, God will give the priceless inheritance of eternity only to those who are in his heavenly family, who have received the gift of salvation through faith in Christ. This inheritance won’t be fully realized until we pass from this life to the next, ready to spend eternity with the Lord in the new heavens and new earth.

Are you living in “great expectation” of this inheritance? You should! Nothing in this world compares to it.

Now What?

Prayerfully meditate on the glorious eternal inheritance awaiting you in Christ Jesus using today’s passage; 2 Timothy 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4; and Revelation 22:1–22:5.

Did You Know?

Good works cannot merit our “priceless inheritance.” But Scripture frequently speaks about heavenly rewards that believers can store up through righteous deeds (Matthew 5:12; Matthew 6:1-6; 1 Corinthians 3:14; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 John 1:8).