I had the joy of being able to go to the big church night in last weekend with some friends, where Rend Collective and Matt Redman were playing and it was brilliant. We were able to spend an evening in a church packed with people all just wanting to worship God and sing his praises. At one point Matt said that this was a glimpse of what Heaven is going to be like and I couldn't agree more.... One big difference - I was in agony that evening, and although I loved it I spent most of the evening trying to keep the tears away and I just couldn't ignore the pain. That will not be the case in Heaven!
Every single day without fail I see little glimpses of Heaven. Those things bring me so much joy and the fact that I know I will be experiencing them pain free excites me SO so much. That added to the fact that these are only glimpses and that in Heaven we will see Jesus face to face - mind officially blown!
Even on the insanely tough days where everything hurts and everything seems to go wrong I can still see many glimpses of Heaven and these are what keep me going. Whether thats praying with a friend, meeting together at church, reading a bible passage I have read so many times before but realising I have always missed an exciting truth from it or just spending some time with God. All of it (and SO much more) points us towards Heaven and can keep us keeping on, knowing that our home is there ready and waiting for us.
Job says these very famous words “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)
What is incredible is that he says these after suffering great calamity. In one foul swoop his children have died, his land, house and animals have all been destroyed too. It seems like everything Job once had has been taken away from him yet he can still say the incredible words 'Blessed be the name of the Lord'.
As if that wasn't enough he is then afflicted with agonizing sores from head to toe. At this point his wife comes along and says "Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) And I mean can we blame her? God has taken away everything that Job owned and loved, including his health. At this point Job must have been feeling awful. He sits in the ash heap and scrapes himself with a piece of broken pottery he is in that much pain. He must also have been feeling the sorrow of losing his children. Plus he was once a rich well respected man but now had nothing left - I don't think insurance existed in bible times. But Job's response is staggering - “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10)
I can tell you now that that would not be my response. I think that reading these chapters really highlighted just how self centred I can be. How easy I found it to presume that God owes me something, that I deserve better. That is so not the case! I also think that I am almost lulled into a sense that when 'the world treats you badly' you have every right to be angry back at it. The thing is that so often we have the idea in our heads that God owes us something, or everything in fact but the truth is God has already given us everything when we were owed nothing. I think that we need to start focusing on the thousands of huge blessings we have every minute, rather than searching and trying to point out the few small things that we might want changed. I'm not saying that means we have to ignore hardships and pretend they are not happening or pretend they are not as hard as they are. No its just about being able to see that even in those most painful moments we are still being immensely blessed. I think its about being able to say this is hard, I don't understand it, but even so blessed be the name of the Lord!
Blessed be your name, on the road marked with suffering. Though there's pain in the offering, blessed be your name!
