Is heaven about us?

So lately, as I'm sure most of you are aware, there's been a lot of talk of hell and if it's a real place or not. And I'm not going to address that but if you're curious, yes I believe hell is real and without excepting Jesus sacrifice over your sin you're going there.

Right now I would like to focus on heaven. There's a big topic! Okay let's make it more specific... Is heaven about us? Meaning; when we get to heaven does it revolve around us? I've noticed lately that people are, in the words of a dear friend of mine, "becoming less and less selfish in this life so they can be totally selfish in the next." That's a harsh truth.

So the book of Revelation may be a difficult book but it is clear on one thing: God receives praise when we are before him (Rev 7:9-12, 14:3-5 and so on). Jesus is preparing something for us (whatever that is, big houses, gold streets and all that jazz) but it seems, from these verses, that the redeemed don't seem to bothered with those things. The main focus of the redeemed is God. Theres no doubt that heaven is glorious but it's glorious because of God.

Ephesians 1:14 says this "who (the Holy Spirit) is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY." I believe when I read this verse that I see God has sealed us for this promised inheritance so that we praise him. Not because we deserve or earned it, but because he is worthy of praise.

The things of heaven are to point us in a direction of worship of God not in a direction of 'I deserved this' and this is where the FALSE doctrine of no hell goes wrong. We see heaven as a place that people deserve to go and that a loving God wouldn't send people to hell and if he did would heaven really be 'heaven' without our family and friends who aren't there: heaven is not about us or how we think we will feel it's about Jesus and him getting the praise and glory He deserves.

So is heaven about us? In a sense yes, heaven is spoken of as our reward and rest but in a big way no because we wouldn't be able to go to heaven if it wasn't for Jesus and since we have nothing to do with our going to heaven we can't (and wont) spend our time there focusing on ourselves but rather we'll be entirely focused on the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus.

So for us today, in application, when we receive blessings do we become selfish or do we understand that our blesses are suppose to end in praise to God? This is challenging because if we think our blessings are about us, heavens going to be a big let down.

Everything is about him, not us. There's beauty and freedom is that.