The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“We are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.”

—2 Corinthians 5:8–9

Sometimes this life is hard, and as faithful followers who have a sure eternal inheritance, we might wish to skip the current difficulty and go ahead and start that existence that has no tears, pain, or sorrow (Revelation 21:4).

There’s nothing wrong with that wish. To be with the Lord fully should be our greatest desire as believers.

But we don’t get to choose when we get there. It’s the Lord’s will and wisdom that ushers us into heaven at the right time, but it’s by living his will and pleasing him now that we make our lives here most like what they will be in the eternal kingdom.

Our whole ambition is to be set on pleasing our Lord.

Matthew 6:10 says, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Though the world around us may not help build the kingdom, we can. With every simple act of obedience, we grow nearer to our Lord, and our lives become more and more like they will be once we reach the kingdom of God, revealing more of the nature of God and his kingdom to others. Through this, our joy is made full even now (John 15:11).

Let us press on, longing for our Lord and eager to please him now just as we will in eternity, even while we still live in the troubles of this world.

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