The days of eternal joy are coming

​The Days of Eternal Joy are Coming (Read time ≈ 5 minutes)
Revelation 21:3–4 (ESV)
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
 
I’m not breaking any news to anyone when I say, life can be hard! We can go through seasons of trials and what feels like constant struggle. We can also be going along, and everything is going great and then…. One phone call, one conversation, one instant, one tragedy, one moment… and everything has changed. Sometimes these trials feel like a lifetime. Sometimes these trials, in some form or another, truly do last a lifetime. Paul speaks of a metaphorical “thorn in his flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. This was not a literal thorn but something that represented a great struggle and trial for Paul. He ultimately had the revelation that God had allowed this trial to keep him humble; but ultimately, also was not something that was going to go away. Some hardship is seasonal, some hardship is more than that.
 
There will come a time when all hardship ends. When every tear is wiped away from the eyes of the Fathers children. That every pain, every trial, every loss, every minute of brokenness, every heart break, will all be just a memory. No more pain from death (both in our life and around our life), no more mourning, no crying, no more pain. For we will be in the presence of our Heavenly Father in New Jerusalem, a new Heaven, and a new Earth. We will be standing face to face with our Creator, living within His glory, receiving the reward for all our labors and struggles on Earth that we endured for His Name. Everything that once seemed so heavy and burdensome will now seem light. It will seem as if it was only for a moment, and we will realize just what it was all about. Eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). Now, God will reveal to us the things, the matters that we could not see before. The things we could not perceive previously, now make sense. We realize just how temporary everything on earth truly was, and the power of eternal values are revealed to us (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). The pain we feel today, which feels like a lifetime, is really quite short in reality when compared to eternity. Eternity, something actually impossible for our minds to fully grasp the concept of no matter how hard we try.
 
No matter what we face in this life, there is truly nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ and from our eternal salvation except for us. No trial, no struggle, no pain, nothing. No one and nothing can take our soul. We can only give it away. If we keep our spirit in the hands of our Father, there will come a day when He will wipe every tear from our eyes, all pain and suffering will only be a memory, and we will enter into the glory of our Father for all eternity.  Really, I don’t think I can do this any justice, so I will let Paul the Apostle do the talking:
 
Romans 8:31–39 (ESV)
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
         “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
                What feels like a lifetime today is only but a moment in the scheme of eternity. Hold on for dear life onto your Savior. The day will come, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, no more mourning. The old is gone, the new has come, and it’s here to stay… eternally in heaven with our Comforter, our Savior, our Father. Cling to Christ, the days of eternal joy are coming.