Hmmm.... God does not really need our praises and thanks because he is already perfect, but we do need to thank, praise and adore him because we are imperfect. It is for our own benefit. It helps us become more spiritually mature.
As to whether there really is a heaven... I believe there really is!
One of the arguments for the existence of heaven is the argument from desire. C. S. Lewis summarizes it this way:
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Quote:
"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as ***. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
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One example of a desire that I can think of that C. S. Lewis is talking about which is never truly satisfied in this life is the desire for happiness. We have this hunger inside us that drives us to search for happiness in all different places. Some of us seek for it in the wrong places, in *** (driven by lust), for example, or in alcohol, or in drugs, but they only give us counterfeit "happiness"; they only give us fleeting pleasure, which inevitably leads to emptiness. And some of us seek for it in legitimate ways: aiming for financial, material, intellectual, academic, or social success for example. But at the end of the day, there is still that hunger inside us for true and lasting happiness. It seems that nothing in this world, or in this life, is ever really enough for us. Could it be that the object of this natural desire in fact exists elsewhere (i.e., not in this world)? Could it be that the reason why no earthly thing can truly fill the space inside our hearts is that we are really made for another world?
Our idea of heaven as a place where cherubims play the lyre all day long, and where choirs of angels sing all day long, etc., may only be a caricature. We would most definately feel like being tortured in such a place. But if heaven is the place where we are destined to be, where we are made for, where our hearts' longings can truly and lastingly be fulfilled, then I cannot wait to get there!