One mistake people make is expecting that life on this earth should be heavenly.
That we are able to avoid all accidents. That all babies are born and grow up in the 100th percentile. That college graduation automatically provides the right career. That marriage is always fun or finding someone to marry is easy. That people should be perfect. That churches should be perfect. That our own needs should always be met.
Well, your kids are not angels. Your marriage is not always on cloud 9. People will hurt you. Relationships will crumble. You will make mistakes. And the world doesn’t have to revolve around you. So check your perspective when you feel disappointed and then blame God for something in your life that Jesus already said would happen. Trouble.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Does your conscience ever trouble you? Did you ever get in trouble as a kid? Are you in a troubled friendship, job or marriage now? None of it can keep you out of heaven when you believe in Jesus. These are problems for you but not for him. He’s bigger than those problems and promises he’s won the victory over them all.
The Bible pictures all believers in heaven some day, and describes them in this way: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:14)
So, when you believe in Jesus you will someday “come out of the great tribulation,” that is, in heaven you will be saved from all the troubles in this world. They cannot and will not follow you there. Again describing this group of believers in heaven, the Bible says, “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd … And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:16,17).
A right understanding of heaven keeps us from these expectations that would otherwise devastate us while living on this earth. Instead, for now, we work and wrestle with sin and brokenness, with disappointment and people who hurt us—knowing that Jesus has overcome it all, and that some day when we’re in heaven it will disappear forever.
And until then? Jesus promises that this world is not trouble-free, but even now he is Lord over all troubles. Including yours.
Washed clean in baptism, your troubles are not attached to your guilt or thrown at you like lighting bolts from an angry God. This world and its troubles have no power over you, unless you let them.
So, cheer up because Jesus defeats all trouble. And he promises that one day in heaven, all trouble will disappear forever.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I need your promise that you have overcome all my troubles today, and that none of them will follow me to heaven. Guide me to anticipate heaven’s perfection someday, without expecting heaven on earth now. Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: I preached about this and more in a message about the book of Revelation. Check it out!