Series: Flowers in the Desert
Romans:8:18 ESV
Romans 8:15-17 ESV
When times get tough (and they do sometimes get tough for all of us) believers have the great blessing of knowing God is here today and God will be here tomorrow.
We are told by the apostle Paul in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
It seems strange to me that when I talk to people who are not followers of the people of the Way of Jesus (that’s what believers were called in the first century) they talk about believers going to church and serving God in some way.
While that is true, those things in no way define my life as a believer.
I do associate with a church.
I do serve God using the gifts God gave me.
However, those things do not explain my relationship WITH God.
I am in a relationship with the living God, creator of heaven and earth. God created me for a purpose and a very small part of that purpose is to serve Him. I’d say, one percent of my relationship with God is to have a church and to serve in some capacity.
The other 99% is loving God and loving others.
I have to admit I sometimes struggle with loving others as Christ loved us. On that part I sometimes fail miserable. I don’t fail on purpose. I fail because I’m human. When I fail I go to God and admit that I messed up. I ask God (yet once again) to give me love for others.
I’ve learned the hard way I cannot ‘conjure up’ that love up on my own.
When I was young I thought I could love God and others on my own.
I was wrong and admitting I need God’s help set me free. That’s because when I stopped kidding myself that I could love God and others without God’s help, I started really relying on God.
During that time I was blessed for many years of having a Spiritual Director help me to recognize how to love God and rely on God when it comes to loving others.
I came to realize that God is papa.
I realized it’s okay to tell papa a hundred times or a thousand times a day that I need help.
Romans 8:15-17 tells us, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
Once I realized God is papa, I knew I am God’s precious child.
I am a great fan of good movies, and I have a “thing” about which movies I can watch. I do not watch scary movies. I cannot sleep (seriously) if I watch scary movies. The first time I watched “The Shack” I was a little overwhelmed with a flood of emotions. I cried but I stuck with it. I was really glad I did.
I loved it that in the movie, God was ‘papa’ to the main character.
I had long called God papa before I watched the movie and I identified with the main character.
I also loved the depiction of heaven.
It reminded me (like Romans 8:18) that the suffering of this world really is fleeting in comparison to the glory of what is to come.
In the movie, the little girl who was abducted did not have regrets. She was free. She was playing with Jesus and His friends and that’s all that mattered.
For all eternity she was free to run and play with her friends and with Jesus.
Papa and His boy are there and they have prepared a special place for each of us. I’m not sure, but I think it’s highly possible that my special place will be different from your special place.
I love to study scripture and write and I spent many many years in college and a seminary studying and writing, but I really really love to sketch and paint.
I am not a trained artist. The last art class I took was in junior high school in 1967. I am a work in progress every day. I would love it if Jesus could teach me how to paint lovely pictures.
THAT sounds glorious to me!
Sitting at paps’s feet and worshipping, loving, and laughing with papa sounds glorious.
Singing with angels would be marvelous!
Hugging my da…
Laughing with my friends who are already there makes me smile even now.
Holding the child I lost and spending time with all of my children and with their families and their children joking and laughing would be heavenly! Just thinking about it makes me wonder about sitting with my great great great great great grandchildren and getting to know them.
The point is, even though we don’t know exactly what heaven will be like, we do know it will be glorious, heavenly, and perfect in every way.
Spiritual Practice: Your thoughts about heaven
If you could choose anything, what would you do through all eternity?
In God, Deborah
Comments