By the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Jesus our Lord, once crucified, dead, and buried, now sits on the throne of glory. The most exalted place heaven could grant is His by undisputed right. Yet how wonderful to remember that Christ’s exaltation in heaven is one that is representative of each believer’s exaltation as well! Jesus is exalted to the Father’s right hand, and although as Jehovah God He has glorious attributes we as finite creatures cannot share, as our Mediator the various honors that clothe Him in heaven are also the inheritance of each and every saint.

What a delight to reflect on the intimate oneness of Christ with His people! We are truly one with Him and other members of His body. Therefore, His exaltation is our exaltation. Just as He has overcome all things and is seated with His Father on His throne, we will sit and reign with Him. He has a crown, so He gives us crowns as well. He has a throne but is not content having it solely to Himself, for His queen, arrayed in the “gold of Ophir” (Ps. 45:9), must be seated at His right hand. He cannot be glorified without His bride.

Dear believer, look up to Jesus now. Allow your eyes of faith to behold Him with many crowns on His head, and remember that someday you “shall be like him, [when you] shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). No, you will not be as great as Christ or be divine, but to a certain degree you will share the same honors, enjoy the same happiness, and possess the same dignity He possesses.

Until then, be content to live unknown, to walk the weary way through the fields of poverty or up the hills of affliction. For in just a little while we will “be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him” (Rev. 20:6).

What a wonderful thought for the children of God! We have Christ as our glorious representative in heaven’s courts even now, but soon He will come and receive us to Himself to be with Him there — not only to behold His glory but also to share His joy.

By the pen of Jim Reimann:

When times are tough, our greatest temptation is to give up. Each of us, however, should have heaven in our eyes. “I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven” (Ps. 123:1).

Paul wrote of the entire creation being in the same condition we endure. All creation suffers as a result of the fall of mankind, yet he wrote the following as an encouragement to us:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. . . . The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves . . . groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Romans 8:18, 21 – 25

Father, since we have Jesus in our hearts, may we keep heaven in our eyes, yet “wait for it patiently”!