Heaven
So in all of our driving time this summer I have been reading! Yay for that! It has been forever since I have gotten to read a good book and thankfully I had 2 fantastic books recommended to me which I have LOVED! The 1st book I read was RADICAL by David Platt. I cried my way through most of the book. What a challenge to many layers of my heart. The 2nd one was CRAZY LOVE by Francis Chan which was equally challenging to me for different reasons. Both of these books are worth reading from cover to cover. I promise they will change the way you think.
A particular though that has come out of my reading this summer is that I have realized how little time I actually spending thinking about or focusing on eternity. Our 1st week back in the states we attended our regular Bible study and the topic had to do with allowing a focus on eternity to take hold of your life and change you. Someone pointed out that it is hard to think about because we can't really imagine it. I agreed with that. As I have read these books this summer it has become more and more apparent to me that my lack of time thinking about, imagining, and preparing for eternity really has a negative effect on my life. I am not an imaginative person, I am very practical, so I really struggle to imagine what heaven will be like. I know that I am to be storing up treasure in heaven and preparing every day like it might be the day Christ returns, but I have a hard time understanding what that means. So, I began to read the book of REVELATION in the Bible. I have always completely avoided this book because I don't understand much of it and it makes me uncomfortable. But, I have been absolutely fascinated reading it this time, and to my surprise, it is changing my perspective on my daily life.
One of the first things that stuck out to me is the absolute and utter magnificence of God. The description of Him is really amazing. It's very humbling to think that a God like that wants anything to do with me. The second thing that I noticed was the description of the elders around the throne. It says they each hold a bowl of incense and that the incense is the prayers of the saints. So, what God considers a pleasing incense is the prayers of believers. That really made me stop. I wonder if I have ever prayed anything worthy of being heard in the throne room of God? I think most of my prayers tend to be layered with requests. How often do I just praise God in a manner worthy of being heard aloud in His throne room before all of the angels and creatures that exist completely to praise Him? I have realized that God delights in our prayers, but just never realized He delighted in them to that degree. I need to work on that. My prayers need to become so much less about me and so much more about Him. Overall, the descriptions of heaven and the presence of God are just amazing. It makes everything here seem so pale in comparison. It makes me want to work much harder on preparing to be there. This life will pass so quickly. I want to be ready. The 3rd thing that stuck out to me was where it notes that those who were martyred for the cause of Christ went immediately to under the throne of God where God met them with approval and gave them rest. I had to stop there. I have marveled completely at the attitude of the believers here who don't hesitate in the face of persecution. For the first time, I got a glimpse of how they could feel that way. I mean what more could I really want, when you strip away everything else, then to give your life for Christ with the knowledge that you will immediately be in His presence, with His approval, to have eternal rest. As a believer, wife, mother, in the end what more could I want for myself or my family then to know that they would be ushered directly to the presence of Almighty God with His approval, to find eternal rest (no more pain,sickness,struggling). At the end of the day that is what we all want. That makes it not quite seem so scary. I mean don't get me wrong, I still have A LOT of growth to do before I get anywhere close to the maturity/commitment level I have witnessed here, but for the first time ever, it is starting to make sense to me. So it was a good summer of reading, and on that note, my kids are sleeping, and my husband is working, so maybe I should go read some more :-)
A particular though that has come out of my reading this summer is that I have realized how little time I actually spending thinking about or focusing on eternity. Our 1st week back in the states we attended our regular Bible study and the topic had to do with allowing a focus on eternity to take hold of your life and change you. Someone pointed out that it is hard to think about because we can't really imagine it. I agreed with that. As I have read these books this summer it has become more and more apparent to me that my lack of time thinking about, imagining, and preparing for eternity really has a negative effect on my life. I am not an imaginative person, I am very practical, so I really struggle to imagine what heaven will be like. I know that I am to be storing up treasure in heaven and preparing every day like it might be the day Christ returns, but I have a hard time understanding what that means. So, I began to read the book of REVELATION in the Bible. I have always completely avoided this book because I don't understand much of it and it makes me uncomfortable. But, I have been absolutely fascinated reading it this time, and to my surprise, it is changing my perspective on my daily life.
One of the first things that stuck out to me is the absolute and utter magnificence of God. The description of Him is really amazing. It's very humbling to think that a God like that wants anything to do with me. The second thing that I noticed was the description of the elders around the throne. It says they each hold a bowl of incense and that the incense is the prayers of the saints. So, what God considers a pleasing incense is the prayers of believers. That really made me stop. I wonder if I have ever prayed anything worthy of being heard in the throne room of God? I think most of my prayers tend to be layered with requests. How often do I just praise God in a manner worthy of being heard aloud in His throne room before all of the angels and creatures that exist completely to praise Him? I have realized that God delights in our prayers, but just never realized He delighted in them to that degree. I need to work on that. My prayers need to become so much less about me and so much more about Him. Overall, the descriptions of heaven and the presence of God are just amazing. It makes everything here seem so pale in comparison. It makes me want to work much harder on preparing to be there. This life will pass so quickly. I want to be ready. The 3rd thing that stuck out to me was where it notes that those who were martyred for the cause of Christ went immediately to under the throne of God where God met them with approval and gave them rest. I had to stop there. I have marveled completely at the attitude of the believers here who don't hesitate in the face of persecution. For the first time, I got a glimpse of how they could feel that way. I mean what more could I really want, when you strip away everything else, then to give your life for Christ with the knowledge that you will immediately be in His presence, with His approval, to have eternal rest. As a believer, wife, mother, in the end what more could I want for myself or my family then to know that they would be ushered directly to the presence of Almighty God with His approval, to find eternal rest (no more pain,sickness,struggling). At the end of the day that is what we all want. That makes it not quite seem so scary. I mean don't get me wrong, I still have A LOT of growth to do before I get anywhere close to the maturity/commitment level I have witnessed here, but for the first time ever, it is starting to make sense to me. So it was a good summer of reading, and on that note, my kids are sleeping, and my husband is working, so maybe I should go read some more :-)
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