All people can have better lives — if they want it.

It may not be a better job or more money. It may not be having important friends or more-powerful friends. There is nothing wrong with those things, unless that is all one lives for. God offers a way for each of us to have a better life and an eternal home in heaven.

All people need to realize that they have souls given to them by God and that living for God will give them better lives. In Matthew 18, Jesus tells of the shepherd who had a lost sheep and how he went to retrieve the lamb. He said, “Even so, it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14).

To God, every soul is important. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’” (Matthew 16:24-26). All people must realize the importance of their souls. When this is done, people begin to live according to God’s will, and life will be better. They begin to realize that there is more to life than the physical blessing God gives. They become happier as they help others and share God’s word with others.

God has blessed man with the time to prepare for eternal life, but man must take advantage of this blessing. It is easy is to get caught up in all the cares of this life. It takes a constant effort to keep one’s mind on the goal. If one fails to focus on the goal, selfishness sets in and one goes astray. Worldliness begins to take control.

There are many warnings against worldliness in God’s word. James wrote, “Go to now, ye that say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain.’ Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, ‘If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that’” (James 4:13-15).

For all preparing for eternal life, life will be better here, for they will not hold this life quite so dear. One day, the world will be gone. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:9-10).

Turn to God, and study and obey his word. Believe in Jesus as God’s Son, repent of your sins, confess Jesus as God’s Son, be baptized for the remission of your sins and remain faithful to God.

Everyone can have a good life here and know that heaven awaits.