GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 26 ~ ~ Isaiah 30:18 (Amp)~ ~ “Therefore the Lord waits [expectantly] and longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed (happy, fortunate) are all those who long for Him [since He will never fail them].”
From the book, “We Shall See God”–containing sermons from the late, great, Charles H. Spurgeon, and comments by Randy Alcorn.
Continuing “To Enjoy Heaven is to Enjoy God”
Randy Alcorn:
I’m often asked the following question: “Why talk about heaven when we can just talk about Jesus?”
The answer, as I hope you’re seeing from Spurgeon, is that the two go together. The right kind of longing for heaven is a longing for God, and longing for God is longing for heaven. If we understand what heaven is —God’s dwelling place—and who God is, we will see no conflict between the two. A woman who longs to be reunited with her husband could well say, “I want to go home,” By home, she means the place she shares with her beloved husband. There is no competition between Christ and heaven. He loves heaven, and He wants us to love heaven and to long to be with Him there.
Any bride in love with her husband wants to be with him more than anything, but if he goes away to build a beautiful place for her, won’t she get excited about it? Won’t she think and talk about that place? Of course. Moreover, he WANTS her to! If he tells her , “I’m going to prepare a place for you,” he’s implying, “I want you to look forward to it.” Her love and longing for the place he’s preparing—where she will live with him—is inseparable from her love and longing for her husband. If she says, “I love you but I have no interest in the place you’re lovingly preparing for me,” then in fact she is not loving him.
I’ve heard it said that God, not heaven, is our inheritance. Well, God IS called our inheritance in 1 Peter 1:3-4. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,”
So which is it? It’s both,. Every thought of heaven should move our hearts toward God, just as every thought of God will move our hearts toward heaven. That’s why in Colossians 3:1 Paul doesn’t say to “set your hearts on Christ” but to “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” To do one is to do the other.
A Christian leader once told me that people shouldn’t look forward to heaven; rather, they should look forward only to being with God. But Scripture knows nothing of this dichotomy. It says of Abraham that “he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11;10) Or what about God’s people who are said to “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16)? Shouldn’t they have been desiring just God, not heaven? No! If they were doing something wrong, God wouldn’t commend them for it in Scripture. In desiring heaven, they WERE desiring God. In looking forward to heaven, they WERE looking forward to seeing God.
Charles Spurgeon spoke a lot about heaven, and he did so with passion. But isn’t it clear that he was God centered in doing so? All the joys of heaven are derived from the overflowing goodness of our God.—to enjoy Him will be to enjoy heaven. To enjoy all the derivative goodness He shares with us in heaven will be to enjoy Him.
God has no fear that we’ll get too excited about heaven. After all, the wonders of heaven aren’t OUR idea, they’re HIS. The wonders of the new heavens and new earth will be a primary means by which God reveals Himself and His love to us.
Picture Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve says to Adam, “Isn’t this place magnificent? The sun feels wonderful on my face. The blue sky is gorgeous. These animals are a delight. Try the mango—it’s delicious!”
Can you imagine Adam responding, “Your focus is all wrong, Eve. You shouldn’t think about beauty, refreshment and mouth-watering fruit. All you should think about it God.”
Adam would never have said that, because in thinking about these things, Eve WOULD BE thinking about God. Likewise, our enjoyment of what God has provided us should be inseparable from worshiping, glorifying and appreciating Him. God is honored by our thankfulness for His gifts and pleased by our anticipation of heaven, that magnificent place the God-man is building with His own hands—the place for which he purchased our admission with His own blood.
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Ps 103:13-14 Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For he Himself knows our form. He is mindful that we are nothing but dust.
Ps 36:5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches past the clouds.
Ps 68:6 “God makes a home for the lonely……….”
Psalm 73:28
But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.
II Corinthians 3:17
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.