Great Is His FaithfulnessSample

Day 7: God Will Faithfully Give You Your Promised Everlasting Home in an Eternal City

Every year the Jewish diaspora ends their Passover Seder with this wistful prayer: “Next year in Jerusalem.” It expresses the deep longing for the promised Messiah’s long-awaited arrival, which will finally bring lasting peace and restored worship to Jerusalem. It is a profound yearning that perhaps next year those who have been strangers and exiles on the earth for so long will finally see an end to their sojourning and return to their promised forever home.

“Next year in Jerusalem!” is what Christians ought to wish each other, perhaps at the closing of each passing year, as we await the Messiah’s second arrival. For we too are seeking “the holy city, new Jerusalem,” that is to come (Rev. 21:2), where we will at long last know the fullness of joy and peace for which each of us deeply longs.

In this city, “the dwelling place of God [will be] with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God,” and he will “[make] all things new” (Rev. 21:3, 5).

In this city, God “will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things [will] have passed away,” and “no longer will there be anything accursed” (Rev. 21:4; 22:3).

In this city, we will finally realize the end of our incessant earthly restlessness, the healing of the homesickness for that place we’ve not yet seen, and the dreams we’ve never been able to adequately describe will come true.

In this city, we will finally worship the triune God with our entire being, in unfiltered glory and in dimensions of spirit and truth that are unimaginable to us now. And we will wonder that we ever used the phrase “joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8) during our years of dimmed, muted, sin-impoverishing, defective worship when at last our faith gives way to the sight of this:

“The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in [the city], and his servants will . . . see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” (Rev. 22:3–5)

Alas! Now we still find ourselves peering into the dark glass (1 Cor. 13:12), still experiencing tribulation ( John 16:33), still hearing of “wars and rumors of wars” (Matt. 24:6), still walking “by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). We still find that “here we have no lasting city,” we still find ourselves seeking “the city that is to come.”

But it will not always be so. Just as the Messiah’s long-awaited first coming occurred, his long-awaited second coming will also occur. It will happen “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52). And it will happen soon, perhaps next year.

May it be, Father! Bring your work to completion and send your Son for his bride! For Jesus promised, “Surely I am coming soon.” And we, his bride, all say, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20). Come soon!

“Next year in Jerusalem!”

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Allow this verse to increase your spiritual thirst and fuel your prayers for the fulfillment of all your faithful God has promised you in Christ, your Beloved (Eph. 1:6):

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Rev. 22:17)

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For more encouraging devotions on God’s Faithfulness, see True to His Word: 100 Meditations on the Faithfulness of God by Jon Bloom.