I sang along with the radio until one line grabbed me. Tears flooded my eyes and I couldn’t keep singing. I will one day be “complete in Him.”

Tears of Joy

“Don,” I spoke through my tears. “Just think of that. We will stand before the throne of God, complete in Him.”

My last living aunt passed away last night, and I grieve that I am far from her family in Winnipeg, Canada. While she has been ill for some time, the loss is great. But it has comforted me to think of Aunt Mary, a woman of confident faith, standing “complete in Him”, in the Presence of the One who gave His life for her, and for us.

And I look forward to meeting her again, along with my first husband, my parents, grandparents, nephew and other loved ones who have gone before. (See https://www.carolloewen.com/how-beautiful-heaven-will-be/)

Those of us who have committed our lives to Christ were made clean by His blood that paid the penalty for our sin. But in our humanity we still sin, still suffer, still hurt others we love. While God sees us as righteous because Jesus paid our debt – past, present and future – we still deal with life on this decaying earth. But one day we will stand complete in Him.

And when before the throne
I stand in him complete
Jesus died my soul to save
My lips shall still repeat

Jesus paid it all
All to him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow

Alvina M. Hall, 1865

Our salvation is assured when we repent and turn to Christ for His saving grace. And yet Paul tells us to “be energetic in your life of salvation” (see below). We’re complete, and yet in process. We’re still weak. But we are challenged by the apostle Paul to live in obedience, as Jesus did.

Because of that obedience, God lifted him (Jesus) high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father. What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. Philippians 2:10-14 MSG

What will it feel like to Stand Complete in Him?

Thank You, Lord

Music is often what touches my spirit first. When I stop to think about standing before the throne of God, complete, whole, righteous, my heart soars. I am still selfish and self-centered. I get irritable or annoyed. Sometimes I get “weary in well-doing.” But one day all that will be gone, purified, righteous, before the throne of God.

And some day, He will either take me home through death, the normal kind of separation; or He will return in the clouds and, along with all His children, I will be gathered together to meet Him in the air.

If you haven’t yet trusted Christ as your Savior and Lord, I encourage you to do it now. I so want you to be in that great cloud of witnesses called to meet Jesus in the air.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.… I Thessalonians 4:16-18, Berean Standard Bible