Wait a minute. Stop right there. You mean to say that I have to spend all of eternity praising God? Are you serious? I can barely keep focused for one worship song...and you're telling me that I'm going to have to sing for eternity? Do you know how long eternity is? It's a long time, and—
Yeah. Eternity is a long time. If you want to look at it that way. Personally, I wouldn't really consider it "time." This is going to get complicated, but I think it's necessary. I don't think eternity can really be considered in our limited knowledge of time, for I honestly don't think God sees it that way. I think God functions outside of time. This is a concept we cannot possibly grasp, for we have never heard of anything outside of time. We have always lived in time. But I don't think we always will. I think Heaven is different—it's as far from time as God is.
C.S. Lewis puts it this way: "If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round, contains the whole line, and sees it all" (Mere Christianity, p. 168).
As strange as it may seem to us now, this view of "time" seems to suggest that once we leave this world (and therefore enter the next), then we will also leave time itself. Our eyes will be opened so that we don't see time as we see it now. We'll see it how God sees it. I can't explain this now, for I too don't understand it. But I think that once we actually get to Heaven—once we actually see with our own eyes what eternity is like outside of time—then we will no longer worry about its length. It won't matter because it's not defined that way. We won't look at it as eternity future; we will just see it all as the present.
Well, that's all fine and dandy...but what about praising God? Even if I'm not worried about the time, won't I eventually get bored?? Sitting on a cloud with a harp doesn't appeal to me much—no matter how long I have to do it.
Who said you were sitting on a cloud? And who said you had to use a harp?? I believe God enjoys our worship more when it comes from our hearts. This may sound cheesy, but think about it. The most sincere worship comes from the deepest part of the human soul, and it is expressed through whatever talent that particular soul has been given. Some worship God through song. Others express their praise differently, using whatever talents they may have to bring God glory. This really could range from art or dance to philosophy, research, athletics, or history. Whatever you do with your life could be used to bring God glory, and I think Heaven's going to be the same way. I think we will be able to use the special abilities God has given us to praise Him. And unlike our worship here on earth, our worship in Heaven will be perfect. We won't get distracted, and we won't have to worry about how it looks or sounds.
That's nice...but what if I don't want to worship God sometimes?
Worship is not something that God's going to force us to do. Any praise we give must be uttered by choice, or it is worthless. God knows our hearts, and He knows where our words come from. He doesn't care for words that don't really mean something to the person saying them.
However, once we reach that eternity—that paradise that God has promised, that perfect place where we will finally come face to face with our Creator—will there be any moment when we won't want to worship God?
Well, yeah. Like right now. I don't feel like it right now. Even if my life was going absolutely amazing, I don't think I would be constantly worshiping God. After all, I'd run out of words, and then—
Run out of words? I doubt it. I Corinthians 13:12 says, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (NIV 1984). When we get to Heaven, we will finally see God as He really is. No longer will we be hindered by the erred views of mankind. We will see Him fully.
Have you ever realized some small part of God for a brief moment? Maybe you witnessed a miraculous answer to prayer. Maybe a preacher told you of one of God's amazing attributes. Maybe you heard something in a song that triggered a passion in your heart for Him. Whatever it was, I'm sure you've had one experience that made your heart leap. You thought, "Wow! God is amazing!!" You felt like you needed to jump and run and tell the whole world about your little experience of God. That's certainly what the lame man did when he was healed in Acts 3: "He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with [Peter and John] into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God" (v. 8, NIV 1984). This man was ecstatic. He had been healed!! After being crippled since birth, he could finally walk! And the first thing he did was give God the glory.
But I'm sure his excitement didn't last for the rest of his life. When trials come into our lives, we often lose that excitement. We may keep trusting Him, but we certainly won't feel that burst of joy that makes us want to praise Him with our whole soul.
I think that's why we have such a hard time with this concept of praising God for eternity. We are accustomed to only praising Him when we learn something new about Him. We discover only small parts of God, and we are so amazed that we can't describe our feelings. But in Heaven, this is going to be different. When we see God as He really is, we won't ever run out of things to praise Him for. We will be constantly in awe of Him! John Newton said, "Weak is the effort of my heart, and cold my warmest thought, but when I see Thee as Thou art, I'll praise Thee as I ought."¹
In Heaven, that burst of inexplicable excitement will last forever. We will finally grasp everything about God, and we will never be able to stop thanking and praising Him for who He is. Heaven will be so full of joy that we (in our human bodies) would never be able to physically handle it. We would surely explode! But in our new, heavenly bodies, we will be able to be that full of joy. Even then, I'm sure it will be pretty overwhelming. But—thank God!—we will finally be able to express it!! And (if we are going back to time) we will have all eternity to do so.
So you're saying that I'm going to actually enjoy worshiping God without worrying about anything else—including time itself—and that I'll never get bored of it?
Yup.
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¹ How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds (1779). Lyrics source: my.hymnary.org.
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