Having a Long View

Last week, the news was full of discouraging headlines, wasn’t it? It may be a new year, but nothing is new about the brokenness of this world. Conflict, divide, turmoil, and plain old evil, the kind that has existed from the beginning of time, are at every turn,

Sometimes, we may even find ourselves asking, “Where are you God?”

There’s a song that we often sing at church, and yesterday, as we worshipped together while reflecting on Revelation 5, the lyrics struck me in a fresh way:

Does our God intend to dwell again with us? He does. (Is He Worthy by Chris Tomlin)

God has always desired to dwell with His people. The Garden of Eden was created as a perfect place of peace until sin marred the relationship between God and man. According to the Old Covenant, God instructed Moses to have the Israelites build a tabernacle “that I may dwell in their midst” (Ex. 25:8). With the coming of the New Covenant, the sacrifice of Christ made the payment for sin. No longer did God require a physical space as Paul told the believers,”The Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom 8:9).

However, Revelation reminds us that we live in the “already and not yet.” God dwells among us and within us, but Christ’s full and glorious reign will not be manifested until His return. We are citizens of heaven, but our glorified bodies and the new creation are still a future hope. Even in the midst of despair, God continues to work out His plan of redemption throughout the world and in our lives. It’s easy to want to grasp at the temporal to fulfill the longings of our hearts. Yet an eternal perspective brings hope and purpose beyond what our eyes can see.

Having a long view means we faithfully wait. We daily abide. We joyfully persevere. We courageously trust. We confidently hope. We humbly worship.

Nancy Guthrie writes, “The day will come when we will look back and it will be clear to us that there was nothing more practical than prayer, nothing more practical than perseverance, and nothing more practical than praising the triune God even when evil was pressing in on us. We’ll discover that worship was the ‘ultimate subversive activity’ in a world of idolatry and materialism.”

Don’t be discouraged or afraid. Don’t be tempted to give up. Worship instead. When this world offers only hopelessness and pain, God gives the promise that He is still present, still working, still moving.

This is not the end. One day, hopelessness and pain will be replaced with joy and rest everlasting. The problems of this world will fade away and we will spend eternity praising Jesus.

God will dwell with His people forevermore and we will be home at last.

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever! Revelation 5:13