A Vision Of Unity
Revelation 7:9-10 (NIVUK) —
‘After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’’
When I think about God's vision for unity among his people, I’m immediately reminded of these verses in Revelation 7, where John has an image of God’s people worshipping in the throne room of heaven.
For me, these verses are so profound because they offer us an image of what unity looks like in God’s kingdom: a coming together of all people in worship of one God. Yet even in this heavenly vision of unity and oneness amongst God’s people, John is still able to identify and depict different languages and people groups, nations and tribes, implying that there is beautiful diversity on display in heaven and that there will be uniqueness and individuality to our praise and worship.
We might think that race or culture won’t matter in heaven. However, from these verses we can infer that they deeply matter to God, not just whilst we’re on earth but in heaven too. And anything that matters to God in heaven we should want to see here on earth today.
Jesus himself taught us to pray your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10 NIVUK). God teaches his disciples to pray for the things of heaven to become a reality on Earth. The truth is we don’t often see unity on Earth and we struggle to see how there could ever be oneness amongst God’s people. We need to be reminded that there is a kingdom model of unity already happening right now in heaven! So let's pray for it on Earth here today.
Prayer – Jesus, we thank you that you made us uniquely in your image
Help us to model what true unity looks like. We’re sorry for where we haven’t done this and when we’ve got it wrong. We pray that we would see kingdom unity break out across the Earth - within the Church and beyond!