I’ve been thinking about heaven a lot lately. With my aunt passing away last month…it was another reminder that more and more of the generation before us are being called “home”. While we grieve over the loss of each family member…it is such a comfort to know they are now in the presence of Jesus…worshipping and praising Him for all of eternity.
These days remind me of the song, “When We All Get to Heaven”. I don’t know about you, but that song gives me chills every time I sing it. It’s almost like having a mini mountaintop experience as I think about how wonderful it will be when I join those who have gone before me and see my Jesus face to face. The problem is that just like all other mountaintop experiences, sooner or later, I have to come down off that “high” and go back to living in the day-to-day trenches. Yes, it is going to be magnificent when we all get to heaven; but how in the world am I supposed to get through each day until my time to enter heaven is here?
I think verse 3 in this song answers that question. It says:
Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.
In the meantime...while we wait...we are to trust and serve. It sounds so simple, but is sometimes so hard. For some reason, our “self” often gets in the way and we struggle with just simply trusting Him.
It never ceases to amaze me that I allowed a man, whom I had never met before the first appointment, to open up my back and work on my spinal column. Not just once...but five different times! I trusted him to do this because he had a framed piece of paper on the wall saying he was qualified. But I serve a God who created the entire universe, formed me in my mother’s womb, who knows my yesterday, my today and my tomorrow and I struggle to trust Him and take Him at His Word. His qualifications far outweigh a framed piece of paper, but trusting and serving Him doesn’t always come easy.
I love how The Message translates Proverbs 3:5-7, “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!” We all need to take these verses to heart. Where we usually get in trouble is when we put our focus on trying to figure everything out on our own, instead of just trusting Him from the bottom of our heart. I think instead of listening...we are often talking; telling Him what we think we should do and as a result our spirit becomes unsettled and the trenches seem to collapse in around us.
Maybe that is how you are feeling today. Maybe your circumstances feel overwhelming, and you have yourself worked up into a lather because you aren’t in control. Possibly you think you know it all and that if God would just do what you think He should do...everything would work out. Let me ask you a question; how’s that working for you? If I had a guess, I would say it probably isn’t going well. Why? Because you are not allowing Him to have complete control; letting Him keep you on the right track.
Oh, what a day it will be when we all get to heaven. But until then...we are to trust. Until then...we are to serve. Until then...our focus needs to be upward for that first glimpse of our Jesus which will erase all memories of the trenches. That my friend will be a mountaintop experience which will never end!
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