I've been thinking about heaven the last couple of days. Heaven is a place that we all have an idea about and think about, probably based mainly on what we know from God's Word...and from the Bible there are a lot of songs that speak of the day we will stand before our God. At my church, lately, we have been singing a lot of songs that have a verse about the day when we will stand before Jesus. We will worship Him for all eternity, we will exalt Him on His holy throne, and cast crowns at His feet, and if ever He was the center of our world, it will be when we are in heaven and have nothing to steal our attention from His perfect Holiness and Righteousness. What an incredible day that will be.
Well the last couple of days, I've been thinking about the other aspect of heaven. The thought that we will stand before our God and He will count US as faithful. He will say, "well done my good and faithful servant," to we who have strived and walked the sinful earth for what seemed so long. All that we had sowed we will finally reap...And like the song that we've been singing a lot of says, we will be "dressed in His righteousness alone; faultless to stand before the throne!"
In a book I've been reading, I began to think of this approval, this pleasure, this praise that we will receive from the living God! I often get so excited about getting to heaven that I don't think about how excited my God is to get me home to heaven! Zephaniah 3:17 says, "The Lord Your God in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; He will exult over you with loud singing!" Seriously! The God of the universe will be overjoyed when we finally make it home to His presence and perfection! I can't imagine Him singing over me...It's probably the most mind-blowing melody the universe will ever hear.
But think about this approval in your earthly state. It doesn't take much to receive praise today and let it go to your head. I mean, in our prideful, sinful state, we are so quick to jump to our own defenses as to why we should deserve the praise or approval. But in heaven we will be free of all of that. Listen to the thought and quote I jotted down as I have been reading through "The Weight of Glory," by C.S.Lewis:
In heaven, our God will tell us well done good and faithful servant. He will show His approval, like a Father shows approval to his child...Think about that day, "when our redeemed soul will understand that she has pleased Him whom she was created to please. There will be no room for vanity then. She will be free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing. With no taint of what we should now call self-approval she will most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be, and in that moment which heals her old inferiority complex forever will also drown her pride deeper than Prospero's Book."
This is such a motivating, awe-striking picture to me...That the God of the universe will show His approval toward me, His servant, and in that moment there will be no struggle with pride, no trying to be something I'm not, no need to try to make myself look better...nothing. Without fault we will receive the praise of our Master, only to more perfectly, naturally, and righteously respond in worship to His Majesty!
In Mark 10:30 we see Jesus saying, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or fathers, or mothers, or land for my sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundred fold now in this time...with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life." To our finite minds, sometimes it seems so hard to follow the Lord's plans, and remain faithful. But to sacrifice the things of this world, however hard it might seem, and to live unashamed of the Gospel, no matter what persecution may avail, is to gain the treasures and inheritance of heaven, as well as the approval of our God.
Fight the good fight!