‘Why are not our hearts continually set on heaven? … bathe yourself in heaven’s delights.’
Have you meditated on heaven recently? If not, why not?
Try this inspiration and guide from the Puritan Richard Baxter. His book The Saints’ Everlasting Rest (1650) was a best-selling classic in its day and can still help its readers see the wonder of heaven, the worth of meditating on it, and the way to meditate on it.
The wonder of heaven
There will be a perfect freedom from all evils. We will then be free from all the evils of this life as well as the deserved evils or miseries of hell. Nor more grief or sorrow of sickness or pains or even anxieties or ‘whatsoever deserves the name of evil’. All gone.
There will be the highest degree of personal perfection in body and soul, fully equipped to appreciate all the glory God will give in heaven and in resurrection.
Best of all, there will be the fullest enjoyment of God’s love, the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Christian, believe this, and think on it: thou shalt be eternally embraced in the arms of that love which was from everlasting, and, will extend to everlasting; of that love which brought the Son of God’s love from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to glory; that love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crucified, pierced; which did fast, pray, teach, heal, weep, sweat, bleed, die; that love will eternally embrace thee. (p.23)
His love which is our study now (Eph. 3:18) will surely be our study then. What’s more, this is not only our personal joy but ‘mutual joy’ and indeed joy all round.
And it is not thy joy only; it is a mutual joy as well as a mutual love. Is there joy in heaven at thy conversion, and will there be none at thy glorification? Will not the angels welcome thee thither, and congratulate thy safe arrival? – yes, it is the joy of Jesus Christ; for now He hath the end of His undertaking, labour, suffering, dying, when we have our joys; when He is ‘glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe’; when He ‘sees of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied.’ (p.25)
Not our joy only but Jesus’ joy and the Father’s joy and the Holy Spirit’s joy and the angels’ joy and all the saints’ joy, rejoicing together – in a world of love and joy.
Finally, it will all be an everlasting reality, without which it could not really be heaven.
Without this all were comparatively nothing. The very thought of leaving it would embitter all our joys. It would be a hell in heaven, to think of once losing heaven… (p.46)
Were it not forever, it’s end would hang over us like a long shadow – but there will be no such shadows in heaven – for it is eternal, everlasting rest. And therefore, he urges:
Study frequently, study thoroughly this one word – eternity. What! live and never die! rejoice, and ever rejoice! (p.46)
Then, because heaven is so wonderful, it is well worth thinking about as much as we can – meditating on it.
If we do so, we will get these benefits:
1. It gives evidence of a true faith
What kind of faith has little or no interest in heaven? True saving faith longs for God and His heaven. Not simply the longing for a better world but for God Himself, the fullness of His presence.
2. It creates an excellent state of mind
The most famous mountains and trees are those that reach nearest to heaven; and he is the choicest Christian whose heart is most frequently and most delightfully there. (p.158)
It’s an excellent place to be mentally or spiritually. It gives the greatest comfort and joy. From Romans 12:12:
It is in hope the saints rejoice, and no longer than they continue hoping. (p.159)
Baxter knew that life could be so hard that the only comfort and joy comes through hope, and not through any present experience.
3. It provides protection against temptation
Because it keeps the heart ‘well employed’, away from temptations, and ‘because the affections are thoroughly prepossessed with the high delights of another world’, ‘You cannot persuade a child to part with his sweets while the taste is in his mouth’ –Baxter.
4. It generates spiritual energy
The heavenly Christian is the lively Christian.
How will the soldier hazard his life, and the mariner pass through storms and waves, and no difficulty keep them back, when they think of (merely) an uncertain, perishing treasure! What life, then, would it put into a Christian’s endeavours, if he would frequently think of his everlasting treasure! (p.162)
5. It makes suffering easier
Not easy, but easier. Evidently, people who have hope suffer better than those who don’t. Those who have this hope, most of all.
Paul and Silas can be in heaven, even when they are thrust into the inner prison, their bodies scourged with ‘many stripes, and their feet fast in the stocks’.
Just so with our Lord Jesus who endured the cross ‘for the joy set before him’ (Heb. 12:3) and Stephen, who saw the glory of God and Jesus at His right hand as he bore ‘the shower of stones’.
Baxter comes up with this valuable insight:
This is the noble advantage of faith: it can look on the means and end together. The great reason of our impatience and censuring of God, is that we gaze on the evil itself, but fix not our thoughts on what is beyond it. (p.164)
6. It makes us most useful to others
Contrary to the view that we might be too heavenly-minded to be of any earthly use (a saying well post-dated Baxter), heavenly-mindedness makes us of greater earthly use. It is not having our head in the clouds, it is having our heart in Christ – in heaven (Col. 3).
As a practical example: It reminds us that when we fall out with others we must soon be reconciled because in heaven we will be everlasting friends.
7. It honours God
God is honoured by those whose heart is on heaven because a heart properly set on heaven is a heart set on God. And because heaven is the presence of God in the fullest and most immediate way.
How is God honoured by such a one! The Lord will testify for him: This man believes me, and takes me at my word, he rejoices in my promise before he has possession…; his heart is with me; he loves my presence, and he shall surely enjoy it in my kingdom for ever. (p.166)
There is nothing else worth setting our hearts on like heaven. There is nothing else worthy of this level of attention and devotion. What could be better than heaven and God himself?
Finally, he suggests ways to meditate on heaven, to learn ‘the art of heavenly-mindedness’.
First and foremost, consider it the most important thing…
Or you will not set your heart on it. Be convinced that heaven is only true happiness – or you will not be prepared to push through the resistance as you set yourself to it. That resistance will come mainly from your own heart but persuade yourself of the truth that it is a strange madness not to meditate on something so wonderful and so sure.
Choose time and place thoughtfully
This meditation can be both spontaneous and set or scheduled but it is necessary to make a plan, to be deliberate and intentional about it – or it will easily fall away. It is a discipline. ‘Set’ your minds on things above (Col. 3:1).
And get away, get alone, like Isaac in the field or the Lord Himself withdrawing to lonely places (Luke 6:14). So that you get as far away from the world as you can and give heaven your full attention.
Preach the gospel to yourself (‘soliloquy’)
Persuade yourself like an effective preacher with all reason and revelation. It may be a long and gradual process, but give it time and effort. ‘Add one reason to another until the scales turn’ – until they begin to tip your heart into a heavenly mood. Pile them up, these reasons so many and good. And don’t give up until you bring that glorious hope home to your heart. Baxter challenges us: ‘Will you stop when you are almost at the top of the hill and turn back before you have taken in the view?’
This of course is to be done also prayerfully, sometimes speaking to God, sometimes to ourselves as in Psalm 42. Prayer and meditation must be intermixed.
Talk about heaven with other believers
It is pity Christians should ever meet together without some talk of their meeting in heaven, or of the way to it, before they part. It is a pity so much time is spent in vain conversation and useless disputes, and not a serious word of heaven among them. Methinks we should meet together on purpose to warm our spirits with discoursing of our rest. (p.181)
Learn to relate or connect every things to your heavenly future
For example, when enjoying good food, let it remind you of the heavenly feast to come. Do the same with refreshing drinks, sweet smells, great music, beautiful sights, and so on. Switch up or transpose these everyday experiences to the purer and higher and greater experiences of the heavenly life to come.
Relate all spiritual truths to the heavenly hope
Every Biblical truth is precious, yet all truth should be related to this final outcome. For only then will salvation be complete, the full effect of the work of Christ.
For example, when we look to the cross of Christ we see and appreciate the sacrifice made then, yet we may also look forward to the slain Lamb upon the throne worthy of all praise, glory and honour.
Not Baxter evidently but, to illustrate, I much prefer to know the final score of a game involving my team before I dare to watch the highlights. Then I can relax and properly enjoy it because I know, whatever happens, the final outcome will be good. So we always keep in mind the ‘final score’.
And so, let us… ‘live in the suburbs of heaven’, ‘take a walk every day in the New Jerusalem’.
Baxter urges us: O try this life of meditation on your heavenly rest! (p.246)
The wonders of heaven are well worth the work of meditation in the ways he suggests.
Always with prayer of course. And so, he closes:
O thou, the merciful Father of spirits, the attraction of love and ocean of delights, draw up these drossy hearts unto thyself, and keep them there till they are spiritualised and refined; and second thy servant’s weak endeavours, and persuade those that read these lines, to the practice of this delightful, heavenly work! (p.247)
Amen
