Revelations 1:3

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. 

Revelations is one of the hardest books to interpret for me. There are many who look at it as a book of doom and gloom but I think it holds some of the most heartening passages of the Bible. 

First of all, the cryptic nature of the prophecies are meant to withstand time. GOD couldn't tell our ancestors that the end would come by way of thermo-nuclear warfare delivered by stealth bombers as there would be no possible way for them to understand this. It's far easier for us to decipher visons of horsemen, beasts and the like than it would be for them to understand modern technology.

GOD paints a picture of the end through visions but Revelation is not about the end. It is about the new beginning where we will change into spiritual beings and commence our lives of eternal joy in the LORD. In the book, we are told many times to "keep", such as "keeps my works until the end...", "...have kept my word..." and "...who keep the commendments of GOD...". If we hear the words of Revelations and take them to heart, we will be inspired to keep close to us the treasured words of salvation and to perform acts by them. By doing so, the end is a time to look forward to and not to dread.