Longing To Be With The Lord

You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

Do you enjoy travel? Or are you a homebody? I guess I’m one of those in-between people who really enjoys going somewhere new… at first. Until I start to miss all the little comforts of home.

What do you miss from home when you travel? Maybe having easy access to the things you normally eat, or the familiar layout for your bathroom routine? One little thing I miss is my mug warmer for my morning tea. Of course the worst thing is missing loved ones who are back home.

One thing that makes it hard to long for heaven as our home is that we’ve never been there. (As a kid I was a very picky eater and I worried about the food in heaven. What if I didn’t like it?)

But when earthly life gets difficult we’re a lot more willing to say, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20). I think the unusual trials of the year 2020 caused a lot of us to feel a greater longing for heaven. Trials and especially the missing of loved ones who have already gone to Abraham’s bosom are the things that cause us to look forward to heaven, to long for the Messiah’s return.

For centuries the ancient Israelites looked forward to the Messiah’s first coming. But many rejected Him when He did come because He wasn’t what they expected. Even the disciples who believed in Him thought that He was there to deliver them from the Romans. They were all expecting an earthly king to deliver them from their earthly woes.

When Jesus returns, He will deliver us from our earthly woes. And it’s understandable that we look forward to that.

But is that the main point of heaven? Is that the primary thing we’re expecting to get out of it?

In Psalm 16:11 David said to God, “In Your presence is fullness of joy.” That’s what I want, Lord. Take me away from here and give me full joy. BUT what about the “in Your presence” part of it? Do I just want to go be with God so I’m not here, so I can escape all the troubles of this life? Or do I actually want to be with Him?

The other kicker is that these blessings are available to me now; not permanently, but daily. I can escape the troubles of this life every time I choose to be fully present with the Lord in prayer, meditation on His word, and worship of Him whether alone or with others.

Knowing that we won’t have any trials in heaven IS of course one of the big reasons we want to go there. But I hope that we also have a longing just to be with the Lord. When you love someone, you want to be with them, regardless of your circumstances. Whether you’ve had a good day or a bad day, you think about when you’ll be with that person so you can tell them all about it. Let’s cultivate that type of relationship with Jesus; then we will look forward to heaven for all the right reasons.

Jesus said in John 14:2-3 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

Some day we’ll take a trip to a brand new home. It will have the charm of newness AND all the comforts of home, chief of which will be the Lord Himself.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (I Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Dear God, as I get older, I have less love for this world and a greater longing for the permanency and comfort of heaven. May my greatest desire be simply to dwell in the presence of You and Your Son forever. Remind me daily that You are near to me always; that fullness of joy is in Your presence whether here or there. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

by Christie Cole Atkins