We’ve been looking at the great hymn “Be Still My Soul” and, inspired by Pastor Jon Bloom, we’ve looked at several movements within the hymn and how each speaks to a different assurance of God’s comfort. So far, we’ve seen that as followers of Jesus, the Lord promises to be on our side, there is a reason for everything that happens, and Jesus can repay even our most grievous losses. Today we read about our eternal security in Jesus Christ.
Be still, my soul: the hour is hast’ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.
Psalm 16:11 says, “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Our Lord is faithful to keep his promises.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 says this: “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”
At the end of time, every person who is in Jesus Christ will be brought into The Royal Family, and there will be an extraordinary party. And your pleasure will be complete. Jesus himself said:
John 6:35 I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
All of our appetites will be sanctified and satisfied. You will be content beyond your wildest imagination.
1 Cor. 2:9 says “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
People have tried to describe it though:
Theresa of Avila said “From the point of view of heaven the worst suffering in the world will seem like one night in a bad hotel."
Fyodor Dostoevsky said (through his character Ivan Karamazov) that “I believe that suffering will be healed and made up for, all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage…and in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive, but to justify all that has happened.”
For Dostoevsky, heaven “will make amends for everything.”
John 11:25-26 I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?