Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.
Revelation 21:3-4 HCSB
Our scripture passage today promises an eternal existence with God where there is no more grief, crying or pain. Those will be a thing of the past for those who have accepted Christ as their Savior. In Isaiah 11:9 Isaiah predicts Jesus’ reign and said that none will harm or destroy another on God’s entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is filled with water. With all the evil that exists on our planet today, can you just imagine a world where no human or animal seeks to destroy another? It would be like heaven, right?
The knowledge of the LORD is what makes Christians become Christians. It’s what makes us trust in the LORD. When we understand who He is and what He can do, then it’s easy to give our problems up to Him. It’s easy to know and believe that He’s got this, whatever this may be. Then and only then can we experience just a taste of what it will be like in heaven. I say a taste because I think the peace and joy that we feel in heaven will be like nothing we can possibly experience here on earth.
When Jesus instructs His disciples on how to pray in Matthew 6:9-10, He tells them to pray Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You see God’s will is always carried out in heaven. God’s will is what’s best for us.This is why it is such an awesome place to be. God’s will for us here on earth would be that we obey His commandments and trust in Him to take care of our problems. It would be that we focus solely on Him and allow Him to take care of all our needs (Matthew 6:33).
Where the trouble comes in is that God gives us free will. We can honor and glorify Him in all that we do or we can choose not to. When we choose not to, sin enters our lives and things don’t go so well for us.
Now even if we are doing God’s will, we will have trials and tribulations to test us to see if we will continue to live in God’s will by trusting Him to handle these things and to guide us. We have the choice of continuing to trust and honor and glorify God or we can take matters into our own hands.
Now when we take matters into our own incapable hands, we may experience a little hell on earth. But, when we trust God and give it all over to Him and ask Him to guide us (Proverbs 3:5-6), then we can have the peace and joy that we will one day experience for all eternity in heaven with God the Father.
We are told in Revelation 22:5 that in heaven, night will no longer exist and people will no longer need lamplight or sunlight because the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever. In heaven, we will just praise the Lord, that will be our job. God will provide all that we need. We will have no worries or cares.
If we plan on going to heaven, we need to be practicing now while we are here on earth. We begin by accepting Christ as our Savior and doing our best to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1). We then give all our cares over to God (1 Peter 5:7). We trust God to work all things out for our good because we loved Him and have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). We know that He wants good things for us and has good things planned for us (Jeremiah 29:11). We take time out of our busy schedules to honor, worship, and praise Him (Hebrews 10:25). By practicing this while here on earth, we turn wherever we are into a heavenly realm because we glorify God right where we are, wherever that may be. When we do this, God takes care of all we need. He handles all our problems. We need only to trust in Him.
So, today, I encourage you to live here on earth as you will in Heaven. Give God the glory, the honor and the praise He so richly deserves. Trust in Him to take care of whatever comes your way. Obey His commandments here on earth, and see to it, that as far as you are concerned, His will is done here on earth as it is in Heaven. Then and only then will you experience a taste of heaven right here on earth. It will be good practice for your eternity in heaven, so what are you waiting for? Get busy!
Have a great weekend!