Shelter in Place with Joni: A 7-Day Devotional Reading Plan, Part 3预览

The Wedding Feast & The Lamb

Picture yourself pulling up a chair to a table filled with items from the menu in Isaiah 25:6: “In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat.” Christ will open our eyes to the great fountain of love in his heart that is for us—beyond anything we have ever seen before. It will hit us that we, the church, are his bride. Not just individually, but together; one with each other, and one with him.

We will experience for the first time what it feels like to be pure and blameless. You will know family members and friends as God intended them to be all along, their best attributes shining brightly and their worst traits gone with the wind. You will see your loved one walk without a limp. You will witness the stroke survivor walk without needing a cane. No bruises on your daughter, free from the shackles of an abusive marriage. No confused thoughts, no mental illness, no Alzheimer’s disease.

You will understand the lessons the angels and demons learned about God from observing him at work in your mother, languishing in that nursing home. You will stand amazed at how your perseverance through pain sent repercussions rumbling through the lives of people you never knew were watching. You will be awestruck to see how your endurance through hardship forced others you hardly even knew to make tough decisions about God and suffering. Oh, what a wonderful day that will be! We will join hands around the banquet table and speak the words of Isaiah 25:9: “In that day the people will proclaim, ‘This is our God! We trusted in him, and he saved us!’”

Prayer

Lord, I am in awe that I have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb in heaven. It will be a festive celebration because all the sorrows of the former life will be discarded forever and joy, peace, and true holiness will be our eternal future. May this great hope fuel me through hard times. Amen.

This devotional reading plan is from the Beyond Suffering Bible published by Tyndale House Publishers in partnership with Joni and Friends. Discover More.