What will heaven be like? Ask around and you may hear similar answers:
- Floating on the clouds
- Lots of fog machines
- White togas
- A never ending church service
Really? Is that something you’d look forward to? As much as you love church, do you really want to spend endless days watching a church service unfold? And where’s the color? Do you think God saved His best colors, sights, tastes, and sounds for Earth and that His plans for us from here are to descend into a static, boring nothingness? Yes, we long to feel the absence of pain, but does that mean we’ll also miss out on outrageous joy and belly laughter too?
Chip Ingram says that our misconceptions about heaven are crippling us and if unchallenged, will destine us to a wasted life on earth.
Why is that? Because if we think this is the best we can hope for, we’ll look to this life to see our deepest desires met. We’ll live with ourselves in mind. We’ll keep ourselves in the smaller story and miss the adventurous, God-rewarding kind of life that Jesus won for us. And, when we suffer—as Jesus promised we would—we’ll be sorely disappointed because life didn’t turn out as we expected.
Here’s what’s true: Heaven is real. Hell is real. For the unbeliever, life on earth is as good as it gets. It only goes downhill from here. And for the believer, life on earth is as bad as it gets. It only gets better from here.
Scripture says that God allows the sun to shine on the just and the unjust; He sends rain to those whose hearts are pure and those who whose hearts are evil. Every good gift comes from His hand. While on this earth, those who reject Jesus will still enjoy some precious gifts from His hand because He is a good, kind, and gracious God. While we’re on this earth, those of us who love and follow Jesus will still endure attacks of the enemy, because he is out to steal, kill, and destroy everything good in our lives.
But a day is coming when every heart will get its way. Those who want to be with Jesus — those who trust and follow Him — will see Him face to face. We will know peace, fullness, healing, and wholeness like we’ve never dreamed possible.
Those who reject the notion of Jesus’ Kingship, will face a Christ-less eternity without Him. My heart breaks for what they will endure because they refused Christ’s precious gift of grace.
Scripture is clear that a day is coming when God reveals who His children really are. In fact, all of creation waits eagerly for that day!
“Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are.” Romans 8:18-19
What will heaven be like? We will enjoy our loving, smiling Savior forever! We will be blown away by all of the ways our lives intersected with His divine intervention in our lives. We’ll taste food, see colors, and hear songs we’ve never heard before. It’ll be a sensory explosion! We’ll enjoy fulfilling work, without competition, comparison, and jealousy. We will give physical hugs and we will belly laugh all the way down to our toes.
Recently on Middays, I spoke with Chip Ingram about his book, [amazon text=%title%&asin=B012H1076Q]. Chip writes:
“In heaven, no one is sitting passively with folded arms. No one is scrolling through their emails on their smartphones. No one is bored and disinterested. There is full-on singing and praise and adoration and honor for the living God who was, and is, and is to come.”
Life on earth is short. Eternity is long. How we live here deeply impacts how we live there. A day is coming when we give an account to the Lord for how we stewarded our borrowed time, treasures, and talents.
My deepest heart’s desire is to see God’s children live with eternity in mind, to live ready to meet our Savior. Heaven is real and one day our short time on earth with seem like a blip on a screen. People get ready! Jesus is coming! Heaven is for real.
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Matthew 6:19-21