Imagine catching a glimpse of heaven through the awe-inspiring moments of your everyday life. Join us for an enlightening discussion inspired by the book "Imagine Heaven," where we explore how imagining heaven can shift our perspective, helping us navigate daily distractions with an eternal mindset. From the radiant beauty of sunsets to the miracle of a newborn's smile, these moments provide a striking reminder of the transcendence and joy that awaits us.
Reflecting on our temporary earthly lives and the homesickness for our perfect heavenly home can bring profound calm, especially during tough times. We talk about the importance of encouraging one another with this heavenly promise, and how maintaining physical well-being, staying hydrated, and engaging with scripture can anchor us in truth. Witness the divine artistry of nature around you and let it be a daily testament to God's handiwork, filling you with awe and reflection.
Now get out into the world and be a woman who intentionally encourages another!
Imagine catching a glimpse of heaven through the awe-inspiring moments of your everyday life. Join us for an enlightening discussion inspired by the book "Imagine Heaven," where we explore how imagining heaven can shift our perspective, helping us navigate daily distractions with an eternal mindset. From the radiant beauty of sunsets to the miracle of a newborn's smile, these moments provide a striking reminder of the transcendence and joy that awaits us.
Reflecting on our temporary earthly lives and the homesickness for our perfect heavenly home can bring profound calm, especially during tough times. We talk about the importance of encouraging one another with this heavenly promise, and how maintaining physical well-being, staying hydrated, and engaging with scripture can anchor us in truth. Witness the divine artistry of nature around you and let it be a daily testament to God's handiwork, filling you with awe and reflection.
Now get out into the world and be a woman who intentionally encourages another!
#women #podcast
Speaker 1:
Good morning encouragers. It's Jo. Welcome back to the Encourage Her Community Podcast. I wanted to come on and encourage you this morning. If you're showing up, I'm assuming you need some, and I do too. So let's get encouraged and then, as we always say, we really hope that you turn around and go encourage somebody else with this encouragement.
Speaker 1:
So I have been reading a book in the summertime. I like to read more often Not that I read as much as I'd like. My four children are home, life is still busy but I get more windows of time to read. There's less running around, so I try to take advantage of that. And one of the books that had been recommended to me a while ago and I put in my Amazon cart, which I often do I always have like a stack of books I want to order.
Speaker 1:
This one's called Imagine Heaven and I'm about three quarters of the way through the book, but it's really inspiring and it's about near-death experiences and comparing them to scripture. It's really interesting and I think, whether you believe in near-death experiences or not, just thinking about heaven and taking some time to really sit in the imagining heaven is really beautiful and really encouraging, and I think it can help us with our earthy eyes. I think it can take the focus off whatever it is that we're looking at in our days you know the distractions, the less important things and just help us look up, like the Lauren Daigle song, right, look up, child, and remember this isn't your home, that you are, as a believer, a citizen of heaven, that there will be a home that we get to go to, that will be that way forever, a perfect home, and he's designing the room for us there right now. And on this life, in this world, we are building up treasures that we will get when we get to heaven. So it just helps, I think, to keep that eternal perspective, or the eternal eyes instead of the earthy eyes. So I've really enjoyed it and if you've gone through loss, as I have and many of us have, I think there's a longing in our heart, especially when we've lost loved ones, for that place, for that time when we may see them again. So I've just been in this space thinking about heaven, imagining heaven a little bit dreamy, and yet it's a very real, very real reality for us. So, with that said, there was something I heard this week and I don't know if you find this true in your life as well. But when you're thinking about something or when you're learning something, all of a sudden you're kind of hearing that in all different places and I think that's really neat.
Speaker 1:
I'd heard recently that when we see something that takes our breath away, like a sunset or a baby being born, it gives us a moment or a small visual of what it will feel like when we get to see heaven, this awe and wonder, amazement, worship kind of state, making you feel maybe small and washing away all the things again that were of concern on the earth. All of a sudden they're not. When you're staring at a sunset, when you are with a newborn and you have a quiet little moment when you're getting to rock that baby, maybe when you're in the mountains and you're in awe and wonder looking at a canyon, I don't know where you go in your mind when you think about something beautiful or something precious, something that literally takes your breath away. You may have noticed, when you have those moments, those awe and wonder moments, you really forget what time of the day it is. I always think it's funny that you see people just sitting on a beach. I'm one of them. I love the beach, but I could sit there all day. It's kind of a strange thing if you think about it, sitting on sand just kind of staring at water. It's the same scene every time, right, and yet we keep going back and you do.
Speaker 1:
You kind of lose a sense of time and my understanding and my limited understanding keep that in mind about heaven is just that there is like time is not relevant, and it's almost like these moments just give us a little feeling of what that would feel like to see beauty, to see real creation in its perfect form and just sort of lose ourselves in it and lose our worries and our fears. And it says in heaven there's no tears. So I just wanted to encourage you with that and I would love to encourage you to look for those moments. Think about those moments. Take some time today to think about and imagine heaven. Let it remind us of where we're going. Maybe your life's hard right now. Maybe you are in a place where you're longing to be with a loved one. I get that.
Speaker 1:
Imagine heaven. Think about that place where one day we will get to be with our Lord. We will understand, I assume, more of the things that are the mysteries of God here on earth and we'll have joy unending worship, unending peace, unending forever and ever. We will lose ourselves to the awe and wonder that is this place. So I wanted to encourage you with that, to look up, child, and remember, remember eternity. Take a moment today just to think about that. I promise you you'll leave this moment of reflection with more peace. Maybe it's a lingering longing, which is a good thing, right, we're all heaven bound as believers. We're all we have like a heartache, a homesickness, because we're really not in our final home. We really are in a temporary place. So let's remember that today and let's be encouraged by it. Let's also think of her, the woman who needs a little encouragement. Can you remind her in a real and genuine way, as you feel the spirit prompting you, can you think of someone and remind her that this is temporary, that it will end, that we will go somewhere one day that will be a perfect environment where there will be only joy, no sorrow, no tears. Encourage her today.
Speaker 1:
I hope you have a fantastic Monday. I hope you get out and you move your body a little bit. Maybe you've been a little stale with your movement, you know, maybe a little lazy, that's okay. We all need rest. We all need seasons where we're slower, less movement. But maybe get out today and take a little walk. Maybe sit on the carpet and stretch your body. It doesn't need to be aggressive. Walk, maybe sit on the carpet and stretch your body. It doesn't need to be aggressive, but we need movement in our life.
Speaker 1:
Remember to drink some water, remember to read your Bible. Get into the word today and see what it has for you. Find something, a truth, a promise that you can cling to. I'd like to read, as we're closing, psalm 19, 1, where it says the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies above proclaim his handiwork. The literal skies give us an image of God's creation. That is something. No matter where you are in the world, you could look up to the sky. Maybe you can't get to the beach today, maybe you can't get to the mountains, maybe you can't go see a canyon, or maybe there's not a newborn baby in your life. You know these examples. But you have a sky. We all have a sky that we can look up and see and we can remember that heavenly place that is to come and the handiwork of God.
Speaker 1:
Literal creation is singing his praises through the beautiful artwork that he has designed. I heard recently that when you look at a sunset and it turns from orange to blue, that that is not actually possible to do with paint. If an artist were to try to paint a sunset and make it go orange to blue, it would be like a mucky brown, unless they use layers that dry over time and layer it and layer it or add white. It's impossible. Only God, the artist, every single night, can make a sunset for us in any way that he wants, doing anything he wants with his colors, just to show us a little bit of his creation, so that we can again remember every night, every morning, with a sunrise, that there's more to come. There's more for us to see. Look up today, Remember heaven, consider it, think about it and encourage her to do the same. Love to you all. Have a great Monday.
