Prayer for the Joy and Fellowship of Heaven

How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. O when shall I come where I shall see Thy face, and stand before Thy throne in the company of all the angels and the elect? O what glory and bliss shall be mine, when I have been parted from my body and have fallen asleep in Christ. I shall be transported to the habitations of peace, crowned with glory and honor, and made partaker of the heavenly splendor. O what glory and joy wait for me! I shall see the Triune God face to face. What I here believed, I there shall see. What I could not understand here, I shall know and understand there. There I shall be irradiated and filled with heavenly light. What joy it will be to behold the great and glorious God in all His majesty!

Therefore, O Lord, I pray with longing heart: As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? The highest joy is to see God, in whom we here believed but whom we have never seen. This vision of God will constitute the highest delight, the sweetest joy, the most perfect blessedness. My sorrow shall be turned into joy, my tears into smiles, my tribulation into gladness, my misery into delight, my woe into happiness, and my heart-ache into perfect bliss.

In heaven I shall also live in the midst of a joyful and blessed company. Here I am among men, and have been obliged to spend my life among both friends and foes. But in heaven I shall be in the company of the thousands of angels who, splendid and glorious, hover around God’s throne, and sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.” There I shall meet all the godly and elect who have lived since the beginning of the world. There I shall meet my dear ones and friends who have died before me; and I shall dwell with them in sweetest fellowship forever. O how well it shall be with my soul then! Hope shall be changed to glad fruition; I shall be ever with the Lord; no sorrow shall ever touch me. And all this shall be not for an hour only or for a year, but without ceasing, for ever and ever. Amen.