New Heaven and New Earth

God tells us the Bible is His Word to us, where He speaks and directs and leads His children into His love for them and reveals His character to them. I have been ministered to by Scripture innumerable times in the last few months. And God has proven over and over that He brings healing through His Word. 

It is in the Bible I hear from God directly, there He lays out His plans and purposes. He tells me of His children's past and of His plans for the future. It's true that God does not tell us everything we want to know. But He does tells us everything we need know know, and withholds enough to give room for faith. 

All summer I've been reading the book of Isaiah in the Bible. It's so, so beautiful and hard and hopeful and honest, all mixed into one. It holds so many promises for us. Many were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, many have not yet been fulfilled. We are still waiting. I often get impatient, wanting things to go the way I think they should go NOW. But the story in Scripture is not primarily about us, it's about God. So I have to trust in His timing, not my own. 

When I remember that this life is all about God weaving His glorious story of love, I have hope for the future. A future that may not come to fruition in this lifetime, but will certainly come none the less. A more perfect and beautiful future. Where tears are wiped away and justice is done and everything is made right. Oh, how my soul aches for that day! Come, Jesus, come, in all your Glory and Grace!!

"For behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered 

or come into mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever  

in that which I create;

for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,  

 and her people to be a gladness. 

I will rejoice in Jerusalem

  and be glad in my people; 

no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

   and the cry of distress.

No more shall there be in it  

an infant who lives but a few days,   

or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for the young man shall die a hundred years old,   

and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 

They shall build houses and inhabit them;   

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 

They shall not build and another inhabit;   

they shall not plant and another eat; 

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,   

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

They shall not labor in vain    

or bear children for calamity,

for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,   

and their descendants with them.

Before they call I will answer;   

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;   

the lion shall eat straw like the ox,   

and dust shall be the serpent’s food.

They shall not hurt or destroy   

in all my holy mountain,"         

says the LORD.

Isaiah 65:17-25 (emphasis mine)