Joy Comes in the Morning

February 29, 2024

Psalm 30:5 Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

There are a lot of things that happen in the world are not okay. Racism is not okay. Abuse is not okay. Cancer is not okay. Death is not okay. 

Because of sin, we live in a broken world full of evil. But, even though we may see and experience a lot of things that aren’t okay right now, we have the hope of eternity with Jesus. We have the hope that God WILL make it all okay in the end. We have the hope that, one day, very soon there will be no sickness, no racism, no pain and no more death. That every tear will be wiped away.

That doesn’t mean we can just pull the covers over our head and wait for heaven. We have a job to do as believers in the meantime. We are called to love and serve. But, it does give us hope. 

We have the hope of heaven. When we put our trust fully in Jesus, God's glory is waiting for us, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. For those who put their trust in Jesus, this world is the closest to hell that we will ever be. For those who reject Jesus, this world is the closest to heaven they will ever be. 

If you love and know Jesus, if the Lord is your Shepherd, it just gets better and better, because even if I have a tough life here on earth, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever where there's no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more sin, no more sickness, no more sadness, no more problems, no more pain, no more pressure. It's unbelievable. With Jesus, it keeps getting better and better. The best is yet to come. Now, we can see a glimpse, a little glimpse of God's glory right now. 

Isaiah 63:15 Lord, look down from heaven; look from your holy, glorious home, and see us.

The Bible tells us in Acts Stephen was the first guy who was killed for this faith, for following Christ. He was the first Christian martyr. As they were stoning him, throwing stones at him, and he was dying in Jerusalem, it says, 

Acts 7:55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God,

We cannot even imagine the details of heaven. We get little glimpses. We get little sneak peeks of what heaven is like in the Bible, but the truth is, none of us can even understand how incredible heaven is, because we don't have the brain capacity for it.  

1 Corinthians 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Romans 9:23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.

When you think about the future, when you think about the next six months, the next year, the next 10 years, the rest of your life, how do you see it? Is your mind filled with doubt, confusion, anxiety, fear, worry? It means you're not focused on the reality of eternity, "Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

That is a promise worth memorizing. The promise of heaven is what keeps us running with endurance. Even when things happen that are not okay in this world, we can hold tight to the promise that the finish line of this life is just the beginning. 

Joy comes in the morning.