Neighborhood slums usually consist of homes constructed with limited, cheap, and poorly made materials. These homes often begin to deteriorate even before they are occupied. Such neighborhoods decline quickly and are usually inhabited by people with limited means. Our lives before Christ can be compared to this type of neighborhood. Before Christ, we lived in the flesh, marked by corruption and filth — like a tent deteriorating as we live out each day. You could be born to the wealthiest king in the world and still begin your life spiritually living in the slums.

During my quiet time this morning in Utmost for His Highest, I was reminded that those who belong to Jesus have been made new. The moment you give your life to Jesus, something miraculous happens. You are no longer living to die; instead, you are given new life that will be lived out eternally in heaven. Second Corinthians 5 explains that those who are in Christ live in this body only temporarily and that one day we will be with our loving Savior and Lord, Jesus, who is preparing an eternal place for us even now. We have hope, knowing that our time here — though filled with suffering and hardship — is temporary, and that when it ends, we will be with our Redeemer.

This is not a waiting game in which we continue living in the filth of the flesh, but rather a life lived in the knowledge that God has already made us new through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). His love compels us to live faithfully for Him — no longer for ourselves, but in the love of Jesus. We live in the hope that belonging to Christ does not end in spiritual slums, but in eternal life in heaven, in a home God Almighty has prepared. Though we are still wrapped in flesh, those who live by faith and hope will one day never perish, deteriorate, or die. We will be given new bodies to live eternally, worshiping the One who loves us — Jesus Christ.