I want to share with you, this week, an excerpt from my book Praying Like Jesus, which I think will encourage your heart to look forward to the unimaginable gift Christ is preparing for you in heaven.
By the way, if you like what you read, you can purchase the book in print, eBook, or audiopages from our website: http://www.joymediaservices.com. Kindle editions are available through Amazon. This book, my favorite of all I've published to date, features 52 chapters (one a week for a whole year) that I guarantee will enhance your prayer repertoire.
So, now, here it is (from Chapter 13):
To Thee, great One in Three,
Eternal praises be, hence evermore.
Thy sovereign majesty, may we in glory see,
And to eternity love and adore.
—“COME, THOU ALMIGHTY KING” (AUTHOR UNKNOWN)
Have you ever tried to imagine forever? I
have. Late at night, as a small child, I tried to picture eternity.
On many occasions, having just knelt with my mother and prayed, I
would be lying awake in my bed still thinking about God. Perhaps I had been
reading a Bible story about living forever with Him. Perhaps I had been
listening to a song about God having lived in heaven for eternity past,
present, and future. Whatever it was, I would lie there thinking about what
forever would be like.
No beginning. No end. Going on and on and on and . . .
Suddenly, my
palms would get sweaty, my heart would pound, my mouth would get dry. I would
be, in those moments, paralyzed with panic. I had reached the limits of my
understanding; my mind wasn’t big enough to comprehend anything or anyone who
had neither a beginning nor an end. I am, after all, limited in my context by
the temporal. All of us who are earth-dwellers are under the tyrannical
jurisdiction and limitations of time.
Although I now know enough of God that I am no longer paralyzed
with fear, my adult mind is no closer to imagining eternity than I was all
those years ago. I am no less amazed at the God who always was and always will
be than I was when I was a child. Nothing caused Him to come into being; He
simply is.
When Moses asked God, “What is your name?” God’s reply was “I Am”
(Exodus 3:14). It is a name that encompasses the past, present, and future. Not
“I Was,” not “I Will Be,” but in the present as I have always been and as I will
always be—the “I Am” never changes. He is constant. He has always been love,
and He will continue to be. He has always been faithful to His people, and He
will continue to be. He has always been truth, and He will continue to be.
Again, I have nothing and no one to compare to Him. He is the
only One with no beginning and no end. When the glorified Christ described
Himself to the apostle John, He put it in terms that were slightly more
understandable in a human context. He said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega . . .
who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
And again in Revelation 22:13 He explains for those of us who may
not be familiar with the Greek alphabet, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” He was the “I Am” at the
beginning of time as we know it, and as human history on this planet closes (at
an undisclosed time) He will continue to be the same.
What does it mean to us to have a changeless, eternal God? In
practical terms, it means that once we know His character (a discovery that
will continue to reveal new layers of truth to us every day), we can be assured
that He will never change, He will never be anything other than what He is. He
is the one constant in a world of earthquakes, hurricane-force winds, divorce,
death, and the rise and fall of nations. Though everything around us may
change, we can depend upon Him to be “the same yesterday and today and forever”
(Hebrews 13:8).
As Jesus continued praying for you and me, He reminded the Father
that His ultimate desire was that we might be where He is (John 17:24). Our
togetherness with Him would not be temporal, but eternal. Forever with Jesus:
That is the hope of the believer. It is the hope that the apostle Paul was
persuaded Jesus was able to keep safe for him until the day when it would come
to fruition (2 Timothy 1:12). This hope—my hope—is not just based upon the
promised physical beauty of heaven, but upon the assurance that heaven is where
my Lord and Savior will be. Streets of gold and gates of priceless gems may be
permanent features of that celestial city where we will live some day, but the
real treasure (the pearl of great price) is being together with Jesus for time
without end—for always.
Even more exciting than the fact that I can hardly wait to get to
that place where, as the hymnist wrote, “faith shall be sight”1 is
that Jesus Himself longs for me to be where He is. Overhear the conversation
between our Lord and His Father: “I want those you have given me to be with me
where I am” (John 17:24).
This is love. First, that He chose to weave eternity into human
souls. That He created us for eternal fellowship with Him. And then that He
wanted us to be with Him so much that He laid down His life to make it
possible—after we humans had disqualified ourselves from fellowship with Him by
choosing to sin.
Eternity in heaven, at the feet of the “I Am,” “lost in wonder,
love and praise.”2 That will be paradise.
But it is a paradise I don’t want to keep to myself. I want to share
it with others. The implication to my life of this element of Jesus’ prayer is
clear to me. I want those I encounter in this world, those I come to care
about, those I learn to love—I want them all to be in heaven where Jesus is, as
well.
So, my prayer is not for myself alone, but that my colleagues, my
family members, my friends and acquaintances might all spend forever where
Jesus is—and where I will be.
Personal Prayer Starter
Alpha and Omega, eternal King, who was and is and is to
come,
With
the hymn writer I am “lost in wonder, love and praise” at the promise of
spending forever with You. And I add my voice in thankfulness by saying . . .
Now
I pray that You will help me share this wonderful eternity with those I love
and care for. I especially pray for . . . and ask that You will give me the
opportunity to tell them about Your offer of forgiveness for sin and Your
desire to spend eternity with them.
Thank
You for this privilege.
Blessings and prayers, Julie
Excerpted by permission from Praying Like Jesus, Updated Second Edition with Study Guide © 2010, Julie-Allyson Ieron. All rights reserved. For reprint permission, email: orders@joymediaservices.com. To order an ebook copy of this book, visit our website at: http://www.joymediaservices.com.
