You’re nowhere near as happy as God intends you to be. Not even close. Our community is immensely blessed. We have marriages that are full of warmth and intimacy. Our houses are filled with the reverberations of children’s joyful laughter, and the aroma of family meals. The work of our hands has been blessed by God. Our bellies are full of good food, our homes are full of sweet fellowship, our community is full of peaceful friendships, our educational institutions and practices are Christ-centered, and our church is filled with Gospel preaching and God-fearing worship.Â
Even with the hard providences that are sent us, the trials that grieve us, the temptations that beset us, God has shown extraordinary kindness to us. Could it get any better?
While all of this is good, what is yet to come is superlatively better. If all the joy you’ve ever known could be rolled into a singular experience, it would be but a crumb in the feast which awaits the people of God.
Imagine when temptation is no longer constantly tugging on your elbow. Consider what it will be like to have the brilliance of sunshine outshined by the glory of Christ. Ponder that you shall bask, unimpeded, in that glory. Think that sorrow and suffering will be no more. Every painful memory swallowed by delight. Every heartache healed. Every terror dispelled. Every regret forgotten.
The blessings we taste here on earth are but a foretaste of unimagined raptures which we will enjoy endlessly. In His presence is the fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11). Maximum joy, endlessly. That is the promise to the those who believe. As John Newton’s wonderful hymn puts it, “Solid joys, and lasting treasures, none but Zion’s children know.†Â