The Hope of Heaven
Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
I’ve been doing an in-depth study of Heaven since Elisha has transitioned to his permanent heavenly home and yet there are still so many questions I have, so many things I still want to understand. The more I desire to see glimpses of our eternal home, the more the Lord brings me comfort, peace, hope and assurance about what I do not see, about what is to come, not only eternally, but here on Earth. I desperately want to understand the “why” of all of this and I want to understand what God is doing, what He is about to do and what the future holds. Sometimes I think if I knew what was coming, I would feel better about what was happening.
Randy Alcorn, author of one of the best books I have read called, “Heaven,” said, “Insisting on knowing the unknowable dooms us to frustration and resentment toward God. We lack God’s omniscience, omnipotence, wisdom, holiness, justice and goodness. If we insist we have the right, or even assume we have the capacity to understand the hidden purposes of God, we forfeit the comfort and perspective we could have had in kneeling before His vastly superior wisdom. God’s answer is beyond our understanding.” And so it all boils down to trust. Trust is something that the Lord has been developing in me daily as He shows me continually day after day, how incredibly faithful He truly is. Even in the midst of my dull lack of faith, He shows up in such amazing ways, I can scarcely begin to write them all down. But I find it interesting that His timing is always perfect.
Corrie ten Boom, author of the “The Hiding Place,” was a martyr for the Christian faith and she went through deep suffering and sorrow in a Nazi concentration camp; she watched her father and her sister die and only she survived. When she was a little girl she said to her father, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said her wise father, “when you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three or four weeks before?” Corrie replied, “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That’s right,” he replied, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need just in time.” When I stop and think about how many years the Lord was equipping and strengthening Corrie while she was trapped in the concentration camp, my heart is humbled to the core.
I realize that my sufferings are minuscule compared to what this woman went through, and now she stands in the presence of our Savior with a crown of righteousness because she believed that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. Romans 8:37 says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” A sweet friend of mine told me that trust is like being on a trapeze. As the trapeze artist jumps from one bar, and is just about to grab the other bar that is coming, he is suspended in the air for a time until the other bar comes to him, where he will grab on and get to the other side, to a platform that is stable and safe. That is where I am at right now, I am waiting. I am suspended in the air, ready to grab the rung that the Lord is about to give me. I know it will be great and I know it will be awesome, however, right now, I am at that awkward place where I am in transition, suspended, trusting in Him, waiting on the Lord and knowing that what He has in store for me will be far better than I could have ever hoped, dreamed or imagined.
Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
I’ve been doing an in-depth study of Heaven since Elisha has transitioned to his permanent heavenly home and yet there are still so many questions I have, so many things I still want to understand. The more I desire to see glimpses of our eternal home, the more the Lord brings me comfort, peace, hope and assurance about what I do not see, about what is to come, not only eternally, but here on Earth. I desperately want to understand the “why” of all of this and I want to understand what God is doing, what He is about to do and what the future holds. Sometimes I think if I knew what was coming, I would feel better about what was happening.
Randy Alcorn, author of one of the best books I have read called, “Heaven,” said, “Insisting on knowing the unknowable dooms us to frustration and resentment toward God. We lack God’s omniscience, omnipotence, wisdom, holiness, justice and goodness. If we insist we have the right, or even assume we have the capacity to understand the hidden purposes of God, we forfeit the comfort and perspective we could have had in kneeling before His vastly superior wisdom. God’s answer is beyond our understanding.” And so it all boils down to trust. Trust is something that the Lord has been developing in me daily as He shows me continually day after day, how incredibly faithful He truly is. Even in the midst of my dull lack of faith, He shows up in such amazing ways, I can scarcely begin to write them all down. But I find it interesting that His timing is always perfect.
Corrie ten Boom, author of the “The Hiding Place,” was a martyr for the Christian faith and she went through deep suffering and sorrow in a Nazi concentration camp; she watched her father and her sister die and only she survived. When she was a little girl she said to her father, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said her wise father, “when you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three or four weeks before?” Corrie replied, “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That’s right,” he replied, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need just in time.” When I stop and think about how many years the Lord was equipping and strengthening Corrie while she was trapped in the concentration camp, my heart is humbled to the core.
I realize that my sufferings are minuscule compared to what this woman went through, and now she stands in the presence of our Savior with a crown of righteousness because she believed that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. Romans 8:37 says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” A sweet friend of mine told me that trust is like being on a trapeze. As the trapeze artist jumps from one bar, and is just about to grab the other bar that is coming, he is suspended in the air for a time until the other bar comes to him, where he will grab on and get to the other side, to a platform that is stable and safe. That is where I am at right now, I am waiting. I am suspended in the air, ready to grab the rung that the Lord is about to give me. I know it will be great and I know it will be awesome, however, right now, I am at that awkward place where I am in transition, suspended, trusting in Him, waiting on the Lord and knowing that what He has in store for me will be far better than I could have ever hoped, dreamed or imagined.
