“Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy.
May Your kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:9-13 (NLT)

A few months ago I was walking and I started thinking about the “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” part of the Lord’s Prayer. So…what’s in heaven?
* worship: “…Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’” Revelation 4:2
* comfort: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Revelation 21:4 (NLT)
* home: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:2 (ESV)
* angels: “In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” Luke 15:10 and “For He will order His angels to protect you wherever you go.”
Psalm 91:11

So then I thought…what’s not in heaven? Satan…Lucifer…the Devil…the Deceiver (pick a name, all the same evil guy). You know, because of the whole “I’m equal to God thing.” Ezekiel 28:12-17 tells us about who God created him to be and Isaiah 14:12-14 tells us of his fall.

Satan’s sin was pride and thinking he was more than he was. The one who worshipped God, now worshipped himself.

“Pride encourages the worship of self, while humility dethrones the selfishness of pride.” ~ Lisa Bevere

If God dealt with the sin that was permeating heaven and deceiving angels, shouldn’t we do the same?

God completely and throughly got rid of sin. God didn’t excuse it: “Oh, that’s just ole’ Luci acting up again.” God didn’t reason with it: “Come sit, let’s talk out why you’re feeling like that.” God eradicated it from His presence and His home.

“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” James 4:17 (NLT)

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (NLT)

It’s not easy being honest with ourselves, is it? We like to hold onto things. We can lord wrongs and hurts over people. We can lick our wounds and excuse our gossip about the betrayal or wrong-doing.

Just this morning, I had to go to God and ask Him to forgive my anger, frustration and my bad attitude toward someone. And no, it wasn’t Dean. ;-)

If we want God’s Kingdom on earth and His will to be done, we need to be personally responsible for dealing with the sin in our lives.

As I sat on my couch and I got brutally honest with how I felt and why, asked for forgiveness and even prayed for them, I felt free. A weight was lifted. Insert dance party!

There is a freedom in forgiveness!

I felt such a sense of closeness to God. I knew I was doing His will by dealing with and turning from the sin that kept us apart.

We can make it more complicated then it needs to be. Get to know Him! Love what God loves, hate what God hates. If it’s sin, stop. If it’s a really deep-seated issue, find someone to be accountable to and walk through it. Keep short accounts with God and people. Guard your heart. Read His Word. Worship Him. It’s our responsibility. Each of us making those choices to do God’s will, will bring heaven to earth.

What a beautiful thought that we can walk out heaven here on earth.

I pray that you have a wonderful, amazing day…and you experience a little bit of heaven!

All My Love,
~ Jodi Beth xoxo

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