Heavenly Scales!!!!
Typically, we tend to try to and measure our experiences to see if they are positive or negative in their essence. If an experience has more positive emoitions and memories associated with it then they outweight any recent negative experiences then that positive experience becomes meaningful for us. And the opposite is also true - where an overwhelming amount of traumatic experiences will often outweigh any smaller positives that we may experience within a similar timeframe.
What we are often looking for is meaning in our experiences both good and bad - but moreso the negative, traumatic experiences. We often hope that during our lifetime the positive emotions and events outweigh those that cause us pain.
In the pondering of our lives, we tend to focus on our life here on Earth, rather than incorporating the eternal into our thought processes. We focus on the weight of our pasts, the pressures of the present and the worries of our shadowy future. All the while, we do not think about our lives in context with an eternal life (if we believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, as the Son of God who died and rose again).
So, what do the holy scriptures have to say about life’s experiences in relation to our eternal future?
Romans 8:18 says… “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
The Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Rome, encouraging them because of the presecution they faced, and the hardships they were experiencing in Rome (mostly as Jews living abroad).
Paul shared in the sufferings of the various churches he ministered to, most often to the authorirites, and those citizens who wanted to continue living in the pagan ways of the Roman Empire.
Paul was beaten and in and out of prisons and house-arrest. Yet he says that all of those sufferings are nothing in comparison with what we will experience in our eternal future.
Paul is giving the beleivers in Rome, and us, hope.
Hope that even though things might be real bad for you (and I) right now in the life you live - you will have an eternity in the presence of God’s glory, HIS love and HIS goodness.
2 Corinthians 4:17 informs us that… “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”
Sometimes the struggles we face in life seem all-consuming, they feel like they are going to destroy us and break our spirits completely. And to be honest it is normal and right to feel that for a time.
However, if we ruminate in those events (especially after they have passed) then all we do is bring about heartache, anxiety and depression to ourselves - creating a storm within a storm.
We need to hold onto the truths that Paul is teaching the church in Corinth - namely, that if we persevere and we hold onto our faith in God (Yahweh) that we will experience an eternity in HIS presence.
That perfect and gloriously blissful eternity is going to “vastly outweigh” anything we may have experienced in this life on this Earth. And that blissful, glorious feeling we will experience will last forever.
Revelation 21:3-4 encourages us when it says… “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
These two verses give us perhaps the clearest image of what it is going to feel like to experience the fullness of the presence of God, and what we are going to experience in that eternal moment.
We see that we are in the very presence of God, in the tabernacle - or the meeting place - where there is communion with God HIMSELF.
In that atmosphere and in that environment all our pain, all our suffering, all our trauma, all our torment, all our sickness is gone - it is taken away, never to return - for all of eternity.
How blessed is that day going to be for us. It is a hope to cling to.
Some people talk about asking God why they went through certain things, or why people said and did what they did to them - and things of that nature.
However, these verses tell us a very important truth, one that should give us so much peace, joy and comfort - even in this troublesome life. That truth is this - “…for the former things have passed away”.
We will not remember all the trauma and the pain we suffered while we were living on Earth, rather we will be experiencing the love, the goodness, the peace and the glory of God - forever.
Oh how wonderful that day shall be for us!!! When all this that we live through now has no impact on our lives - only our direct interactions with God matter for our eternity.
God (Yahweh) is good, this truth is mentioned and alluded to in so many verses within the Bible, however Psalm 100:5 encapsulates this fully when it says… “For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.”
If God is good, and we are going to spend eternity with God (either after our death, or when HIS son returns to collect the bride), then surely we should understand that a heavenly eternity awaits us that will be the perfect and never-ending goodness of God. A goodness that will ovewhelm and wash away every traumatic event, every darkness, every moment of pain and every tear that was shed in the storms of our lives.
Our eternity should be our focus - our emotional state in any given moment does not represent the facts of the events, nor do they represent the perfect will of God that lay outside of time and the physical realm of our earthly existence.
Dwelling on the pain, the darkness and the trauma of our life experiences does us no good what-so-ever. All it does it take us to a place where we doubt that God is actually in charge of our lives, which leads to the diminishing of our faith. We really need to get to a point in our lives that whenever things go wrong that we just shrug our shoulders at it, say “It is what it is” - “God’s got us” and get on with our lives.
I pray that no matter whatever struggles you are going through right now that you realise and hold close to the truth that your eternity is going to filled with teh glory of God, including such overwhelming love and goodness that all the former things of this world will pass away.