Don’t Just Hope You’ll Go to Heaven by Rick Warren

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12 NIV).

If you were to head out to a mall today and ask people if they are going to Heaven or Hell, you’ll likely hear them say, “I hope I’ll go to Heaven.”



But hope just isn’t good enough. I pray that’s not your answer. Your eternal destiny is too important not to know for sure.

Only a fool would be unprepared for what we all know is inevitable: death. The most recent statistics show that mortality rates in the world are 100 percent!

You’re not guaranteed another minute on this planet, much less another hour. Don’t put off the most important choice you’ll ever make.

The Bible says in 1 John 5:11-12, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (NIV).

That’s about as clear as you can get. If you have Jesus, you have life. If you don’t have Jesus, you do not have life. You have a choice.

You won’t go to Heaven because of someone else’s faith. You’ll never go to Hell because of someone else’s choice.

It’s your choice! You decide where you’ll spend eternity.

This is why Christmas and Easter are so important. If Jesus hadn’t come at Christmas and if he hadn’t died and come back to life on Easter, we’d be hopeless. Nothing we do would matter. You wouldn’t have this choice.

The cross is the answer to our deepest problem — our separation from God.

The Bible says, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).

God nailed everything that separated you from himself to the cross. But God won’t force you to make the most important decision of your life. It’s in your hands.

It’s time to choose.

Talk It Over

How does the realization that you’re not promised another second on Earth give an urgency to either your decision to follow Jesus or the decision your friends and family need to make?
Who in your life needs to read the message in this devotional? How can you develop your relationship to a point where you can share this message with them?
If the decision to follow Jesus and have life or reject Jesus and not have life is so clear and stark, why do you think it’s hard for some people to make?