What makes us groan? Maybe we groan when we get out of bed. Or when we work with a difficult person on a project. Or when we look at the bathroom scale. Or when our favourite team loses.

But there’s a deeper groaning—the groaning of the soul that suffers.

We might say, “I honestly don’t feel like I suffer. My life is pretty good!”

But even when our lives don’t feel difficult, our hearts may be hurting.

Or maybe our bodies are quietly suffering from overwork. Or those around us are suffering from our stress behaviours like anger or impatience.

Maybe we do groan sometimes, and maybe people around us are groaning.

God invites us to choose joy even in groaning as we long for heaven, get ready to serve Him in heaven, and live in light of heaven.

Longing for Heaven

The apostle Paul says we groan inwardly as we eagerly wait in hope for heaven (Romans 8:23-25).

We who are followers of Jesus will one day be with Him in heaven forever. We groan here on earth when things are hard, but we have hope.

Many of us don’t think much about heaven. We just live our lives, get things done, and seek to follow God. Heaven seems like something nebulous for the future.

Even when we struggle internally with our own issues or externally with others,’ I suspect for most of us heaven is not really something that gives us comfort.

But some of us long for heaven.

Paul, in his imprisonment, lived with the tension of longing—deeply longing—to be in heaven with Jesus, but of also knowing God called him to encourage the believers and help them progress in their faith and grow in joy (Philippians 1:21-25).

Abraham agreed to follow God on unknown paths because he looked forward to heaven (Heb. 11:9-10). He, along with other heroes of faith, admitted “they were foreigners and strangers on earth” and “were longing for a better country—a heavenly one” where God was preparing a true home for them (Heb. 11:13,16).

These people, when they faced death, didn’t wail, “I’m leaving home!” Instead, they cried with joy, “I’m going home!”

They longed for heaven.

Serving in Heaven

Some of us might not be excited to go to heaven because we envision sitting on a cloud and playing harps there all day.

But heaven is so much more than that!

• We’ll worship God in heaven with followers of Jesus from every tribe, people and nation (Rev. 7:9-10).
• God will shelter us with His presence, and we will never be hungry, thirsty, or uncomfortable again (Rev. 7:15-16).
• Jesus will shepherd us and refresh us with living water (Rev. 7: 17).
• God will wipe every tear from our eyes (Rev. 7: 17).
• And we will serve Him (Rev. 7:15, 22:3).

I believe we will do perfectly in heaven what He has gifted us to do on earth in service for Him. We’ll be able to continue using our abilities in heaven in a deeper and fuller way, in complete freedom and joy.

Whether we love organizing, writing, creating, thinking, speaking, leading, or something else, we’ll use our gifts to serve God in heaven.

So we won’t get bored!

Our lives will be perfectly full of joy and meaning as we worship and serve God in heaven with no limitations.

Living in Light of Heaven

When we’re discouraged and life is hard, we need to remember that we’ll have full joy one day in heaven.

No matter how long the pain lasts here, it will end, because if we’re followers of Jesus, heaven is our certain destination, and in God’s presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). 

Instead of focusing on the challenges and stresses here on earth, we need to focus our eyes on Jesus. He endured the cross and all its pain and shame by anticipating the joy awaiting Him in heaven (Heb. 12:2).

If we live in light of heaven, we will be deeply concerned that millions of people do not know Jesus and His eternal peace. This will affect how we spend our time and money and make plans for the future.

And when stresses and problems threaten to overwhelm us, we won’t give up or just barrel through. We’ll lift our heads and remember the joy of heaven, trusting God to help us persevere.

In our groaning here on earth, let’s remember to focus our hope on God and on the joy of heaven, where we will never groan again!