Have you ever heard this description of Heaven?
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”
I have heard this quite often. I agree that Heaven will completely exceed all of our expectations, but I don’t think that Paul was talking about Heaven when he wrote this in 1 Corinthians 2:9. What exactly is Paul speaking of when he refers to God preparing something for those who love him?
Well, lets look at the context of the verse. There are two main topics in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The first is trust. Paul is emphasizing that it’s really not a good idea to rely on human wisdom, strength, and insight in order to accomplish something. The only thing that is reliable is God’s strength. (verses 1-5)
The second topic is the wisdom of God. A couple things I noticed in this passage are that:
- He has everything planned out way ahead of time (verse 7)
- According to the values of our culture, the things he has planned won’t always make sense (verses 8,14)
- When we are in sync with Christ, He will reveal this plan to us (verse 12)
I think that Paul means everything. Another word for it would be God’s plan for you, or the people, things, and situations God brings into your life.
That is a very comforting thought for me, to know that not only does God have something amazing and planned for my life that is vastly better than anything I could come up with, but also that he will help me to accomplish it as I rely fully on him.