“For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:17)
This world is messed up. One need only look around to see the truth of this statement. We all experience hardships of many kinds, and even we believers can start to lose hope. Maybe we even begin to wonder if God really is keeping His promise to always be with us. After all, there are a lot of times when it just doesn’t look like He’s working. What if He really has forgotten us? Or what if He just doesn’t care? Will things be like this forever, a never-ending cycle of a hard, heartbreaking life?
The book of Revelation answers this question with a resounding “no”. Ever since Adam and Eve rebelled against God and plunged the world into sin, all of creation has been groaning over the sheer burden of life. But the whole world is moving steadily towards the end, at which time God will unleash His final onslaught of wrath before setting up His eternal kingdom on the new earth. He will take His followers with Him to this new earth, those who believed in Him while they lived and dedicated their lives to His service. In this new kingdom, “[t]hey shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore…. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:16a, 17b)
Life on earth is hard. The world is fallen, broken, in every way a twisted version of God’s original creation. But God knows this; He hasn’t forgotten us. He sees the struggles we have, and He has given us a great gift—the assurance that things aren’t going to be like this forever. One day soon, He’s going to return for His people, and we will live with Him for all eternity in the new earth He’s going to create. There, everything will be perfect. There, we will enjoy the pure, unbroken fellowship with our Father that we were created to have. There, we will finally be able to serve God in the way we were meant to. Hardships and heartaches will be no more; grief itself will be no more. All that will be left is God and our adoration for Him as we worship and enjoy Him forever and ever.
This is the promise to which every single believer can cling. Those who believe that Jesus, God’s own Son, came to earth, died for their sins, and rose again have the assurance that they will one day see their Savior face to face. Those who serve Him on earth have the confidence that their efforts are not in vain, that one day they will enjoy the fruits of their labor. This life is hard, but our troubles are nothing compared to the glory waiting for us in Heaven. What an incredible thing our eternity will be!
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