Revelation 21.   The most beautiful thing about the believer’s future revealed in this chapter is not the golden streets, or jeweled walls, or pearly gates. The radiance of the city comes from the manifest presence of God himself.  He will be with us, and his presence will make all the difference. The sheer power and glory of his presence will banish forever those things about life that we thought were forever. From then on, there will be no more mourning, crying, pain or death. These “former things” will pass away.  The new thing that God will do among us will not involve any of those former things.  Sometimes it is hard to see God in the disappointments of this age.  It will not be so in the future. His presence will be manifest.

LORD, help us to trust in your presence today, as we long for your eternal presence in our future.