Yesterday, among all my books, I picked up A Cross-Shaped Gospel by Bryan Loritts to read a bit of before bed (as I reluctantly put down a work of fiction… small victories).
Picking up where I left off, Loritts was talking about Happiness and Holiness.
…ultimately we don’t follow Jesus for the benefits of blessings; we cling to the gospel for the glory of God.
Bryan Loritts
He went on to talk about his wife having multiple swollen lymph nodes in her neck, the tests and the unknowns. What if it’s cancer?
He mentioned that Matthew 9:1-8 came to his mind, the passage about the paralytic who was forgiven of his sins… then, healed.
I asked myself the question, What if all the paralytic got that day was the forgiveness of his sins and never got his legs healed? Would heaven be enough? I then had to make it personal: Bryan, what if your wife does have cancer and you watch her suffer in the months to come? Is heaven enough? What if God is trusting us with cancer so that we might glorify Him all the more, and she never gets her physical healing on this side of heaven? Is heaven enough?
Bryan Loritts
This from Loritts, paired with what I’ve been journeying through in The Attributes of God by A. W. Tozer, reminds me how little the things of earth matter.
Some things from Tozer I’ve gleaned have been the satisfaction and pure delight that can only come from Him, that our goodness is limited while God is limitless/boundless, he is completely just.
People search their whole lives for answers to questions about life and their purpose, while at the same time denying God. “I’m on a journey through life to find myself,” while never opening up His Word or forming any type of relational communication with their Creator. A life like that is continually searching, unsatisfied, continually hungry and thirsty for what only He can provide. We were made to worship, glorify and dwell with Him.
That being said, I’ve started to get into thoughts about how He delights in us. It sometimes, a lot, blows my mind to think about how God in three persons… can be fully satisfied and delights/takes pleasure in Himself. He literally didn’t need us to be satisfied. He was fine on His own. He created us and He loves us anyway. In spite of everything we’ve done since the beginning… He still loves. How could He create something and not love it? How could He love something if He didn’t create it?
How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm 36:7
God is so good. Personal experiences have taught me this, and I hope you’ve experienced that as well. Through the book, we’ve discussed God’s infinitude and immensity. These tie into His goodness because God is so immeasurably big that we can’t fathom it really, as much as we probably try to wrap our brains around. He’s so big and knowledgeable. He knows everything. How could he not be good? He has the power, He has the knowledge. He sees every layer and aspect of our lives, all the angles we can’t. It’s nuts!! 😂 Big Brain stuff right there! (Literally!)
Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!
Psalm 34:3 ESV
**magnify in Psalm 34 means to see it as big as it is, not to make bigger**
In comparison, we’re so small and so out of loop on the enormity of knowledge… we can’t possibly be perfectly good. We try – we do good things, we try to take captive all bad thoughts – but that’s not enough to get us to heaven if we don’t have faith in the One that’s above all.
Our most recent chapter is about God’s Justice. His justice is wrapped up in His goodness. Our justice on earth – well, we don’t really know true justice except through the Father. Justice doesn’t look the same way for us. We may never see justice here and we may never be fully justified til we get to the pearly gates! In some ways, this is still a mystery for me and perhaps to you, too. One thing for certain is that God can be trusted with all things because He is good and He is just.
At times in life, it can be hard to trust Him. I don’t know if it’s just that we’ve tuned out these truths or if we’ve really never known God to begin with. Perhaps it’s a combination of both.
As I mentioned one evening at my friends house, we’re merely on a journey to learning more about God and getting to know Him. Our lifetime, even studying His Word and conversing with Him day by day, we will never gain the knowledge or power to do without God. We can’t ever say, we know God completely. As I said before, He is soooo big, His immensity is incomprehensible.
Christianity at any given time is strong or weak depending upon her concept of God.
Tozer
Though we will never get to “complete” on this journey until the end times are here and we get to heaven, we shouldn’t abandon the journey – the things of this world still hold no value to us. The value and reward is in heaven.
Is heaven enough for you?
I’m enjoying this journey to the Father’s heart and I hope you’re on a similar pathway.
Thank you for reading!
Really enjoyed this post. The question if heaven is enough in light of the challenges we face is something that really tests our faith. I like the quote “we don’t follow Jesus for the benefit of the blessings but we follow the gospel for the glory of God.
Thank you! Yes, it really does test our faith.