What Do You Think of Heaven?

What do you think of heaven?

I fear my view of heaven has sometimes messed up my thinking about life on earth. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always thought of heaven as a wonderful place I wanted to get to. However, I’m beginning to think my view of what made heaven so wonderful is fundamentally flawed and therefore impacting my walk with God here on earth.

Last Monday, on my personal blog, I shared a shocking change for me. You can check out the post entitled I’ve Decided to Quit Trying to Go to Heaven and I Urge You to Do the Same. However, that whole concept was taken a step further by Doy Moyer on my Facebook thread.

I just want to share with you his challenging words and say a special thanks to brother Moyer for pointing us all in the right direction regarding our thoughts on heaven:

Ed, I appreciate your thoughts as they cause us to think hard about what we are about. I wonder if part of our problem is how we conceive of heaven. If our view of heaven is that we will live in these great plantation-style mansions and live some kind of a laid-back retirement life doing whatever we feel like, inviting the archangel to be our guest at our perfectly funded parties, then we’ve missed the point. 

Heaven is about God, not about us. The greatness of heaven is found in God’s greatness and the fact that we will be in His presence glorifying Him. Perhaps if we can perceive that better, then what you are talking about can take care of itself. That is, heaven is the full extension of our realized purpose on this earth. It’s not about trying to go to heaven so much as striving to glorify God and live in His presence. By His grace, we can do that here, but the hope of heaven is about being with God and glorifying Him in ways we can’t even conceive of now. I want to go to heaven, not because I get things, but because I can bask in the glory of God and serve Him eternally and without failure. That is the reward.

He also added later:

Seeing heaven as the perfected extension of our purpose here — to proclaim the excellencies of God (1 Pet 2:9) — also fits Paul’s point in 2 Cor 5 — whether absent or present with Christ, we make it our aim to please Him (vs. 9). The rest takes care of itself.

So, the question is, “Why do you want to go to heaven?”

I have to admit, I’m working on my motivation. Doy’s first picture is, sadly, the picture I carried with me for far too long. Now I’m working harder at simply wanting to walk in God’s presence, now and in eternity.

Are you ready to join me on that journey?