Revelation 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

This is the ultimate fulfillment of the New Covenant that God announced to Jeremiah: “‘This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’” (Jeremiah 31:33) That verse happens to be this church’s Verse for the Year, so this naturally jumped out at me. The thing is, every one of God’s promises is absolute, when the conditions are met. As Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Luke 21:33) We have little if any control over the timing, other than seeking to meet the specified conditions, but we need have no anxiety over the fulfillment itself. As this passage references, there are plenty of unpleasant things in this life, just as Jesus said there would be. (John 16:33) However, those things are all temporary, and we need to keep remembering that. After all, even a 100-year lifespan is no more than a blink in eternity! The devil tries to steal our peace and joy by getting us to focus on the negative, but if our focus is on our eternal, conquering Lord, we can indeed take heart, just as Jesus said to do. It’s not that we are to ignore the world around us. God has prepared both blessings and things for us to do in the hear-and-now, (Ephesians 2:10) and we are hardly good stewards if we just let them slide. However, our view of everything in this life needs to be in the context of eternity, whether temporal things seem unpleasant or blissful.

I’m in the middle of another lesson in this. I’m in the final stages of recovering from a cold/flu/what-have-you, and my wife is a bit further back on the curve of the same thing. Today is the 55^th anniversary of our first date, and she’s not sure at this point whether she will be up to going out to lunch with me. I’m thankful that our schedules made me abandon some time back the idea of an overnight at a hot spring resort, which was my original thought. However, whatever goes on today will have no negative effect on the love we share, and is certainly not likely to elevate to the point of the things mentioned in this passage. The Lord told me over 10 years ago now to rest, relax, and rejoice in Him, and this is further training in that. Thankfully, it’s getting easier!

Father, thank You indeed for how You train and lead us. Thank You for the assurance that Your plans for us are good, and as we are obedient to You, they are certain. Thank You for all You enabled me to do yesterday, and for the assurance that You will carry me, us, through each day, to do Your will on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!