Dwelling On Heaven While Waiting to Dwell In Heaven…

Writer and scholar C.S. Lewis made a strong case for why believers in Jesus should spend time thinking about heaven.  "If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next." C.S. Lewis

The Bible also provides reasons that Christ-followers should be excited about heaven and what it will be like to spend eternity in heaven.

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:17–18)

Thinking of heaven may inspire justifiable excitement about what – and who – will be in heaven, but the book of Revelation also records many things that will not be in Heaven that provide much to look forward to as well.  In Heaven, there will be:

·      No tears, death, mourning, crying or pain (Rev 21:4)

·      No doubt that God is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End (Rev 21:6)

·      No thirst (Rev 21:6)

·      No temple because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Rev 21:22)

·      No sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp (Rev 21:23)

·      No day where the gates will be shut (Rev 21:25)

·      No impure thing, no shameful or deceitful people (Rev 21:27)

·      No curse (Rev 22:3)

·      No limit to our praise of God (Rev 15:2-3)

·      No limit to the presence of God (Rev 21:22)

As you think about what heaven will be like, please also consider this from A.W. Tozer:  “Did you ever stop to think that God is going to be as pleased to have you with him in heaven as you are to be there?”  A. W. Tozer and David Fessenden, The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart p.57.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me

that you also may be where I am" (John 14:1-3).