Are your names recorded in heaven for anything?

Luke 10:17-24

When the seventy disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Even the demons obey us when we use your name.” “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan falling from heaven as a flash of lightning! And I have given you authority over all the power of the Enemy, and to walk among serpents and scorpions and to crush them. Nothing shall injure you! However, the important thing is not that demons obey you, but that your names are registered as citizens of heaven.”

Then he was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the intellectuals and worldly wise and for revealing them to those who are as trusting as little children. Yes, thank you, Father, for that is the way you wanted it. I am the Agent of my Father in everything; and no one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Then, turning to the twelve disciples, he said quietly, “How privileged you are to see what you have seen. Many a prophet and king of old has longed for these days, to see and hear what you have seen and heard!”

Food for thought!

"Learn from me!" Jesus once said in Matthew 11:29.  And  yesterday he urged us to be grateful. Today, Jesus shows us how to do it.  When the disciples came back for their first weekend, they were very happy for what the did during the week. They joyfully reported to him, “Even the demons obey us when we use your name.”

The disciples were trying to be grateful, but they did not know how to do it. And Jesus set out to correct them, and us. You know, sometimes we boast instead of rejoicing, just like the disciples did. They said, “Even the demons obey us when we use your name.” This is not rejoicing but boasting. And as Jesus remembers, it was boasting that made Satan fall from heaven. “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan falling from heaven as a flash of lightning!

 So how and why must we rejoice? "The important thing is not that demons obey you, but that your names are registered as citizens of heaven." Jesus is saying that the great triumph is not in our authority over evil, but in God’s authority and presence with us. Not what we do for God but what God does for  us — that’s the agenda for rejoicing. So when you come home after a weeklong workload, rejoice not because you made much money and much profits or sales, rejoice rather that your name and work and effort are recorded in heaven.

Remember, Not what we do for God but what God does for  us — that’s the agenda for rejoicing! So every weekend, every end of the day, pause to think and thank the Lord for what he has done for you. And this is what  Jesus did: filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the intellectuals and worldly wise and for revealing them to those who are as trusting as little children. Yes, thank you, Father, for that is the way you wanted it."

Praise the Lord for what he has done for you not what you have done for him, if any. "He is the one you should praise; he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen." (Deuteronomy 10:21).