…in Heaven
After Christ addresses God as our Father, thus establishing the intimate and unhindered relationship we enjoy with him as his beloved children, he continues The Lord's Prayer by establishing God’s address:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Revelation 22:1-5
God is in Heaven, and that is very good news. God reigns from Heaven, and through Christ’s righteousness imputed to us at the cross, he has given us full citizenship there. When we pray, we are speaking to the King of our Country. He is fitting us for that place, where there is no pain, no anguish, where trouble of any kind is utterly void. His will for us is born from Heaven’s culture, which is why when we pray we should not expect answers that make sense here on earth.
God’s being in Heaven means that he is outside of time and above all. So not only does he love us with the tenderness and care of a perfect father, he does so while knowing everything about us from beginning to end, inside and out, all over, and through and through. Psalm 139:5 says he “hems us in.”
C.S. Lewis said,
He is not the soul of Nature, nor any part of Nature. He inhabits eternity: He dwells in a high and holy place: heaven is His throne, not his vehicle, earth is his footstool, not his vesture. One day he will dismantle both and make a new heaven and earth. He is not to be identified even with the 'divine spark' in man. He is 'God and not man.’
Joni Eareckson Tada writes,
pilgrims aren’t supposed to feel at home on earth; I set my heart and mind on things above and dream of the day I'll see my Bridegroom; I remember the promise of a new body, a new heart and mind. And I think about the crowns I'll be able to cast at Jesus’ feet. These things make up the soon and coming reality, so today, get your mind on the hereafter. The soul that mounts up to heaven’s kingdom cannot fail to triumph.
We must pray in the sure knowledge that earth is not our home. Paul, in Philippians 3:20 knew this when he wrote, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” When we pray, we must remember God’s address, and that Christ has gone there to prepare a place fitted especially for us.