"Wendy, I know it's late, but when you have time....We are in a world of hate and going into war or nuclear war I think. What does God say... because I don't want to live in a world like this anymore. It's getting crazy and full of hate."And I struggle to make the words clear and meaningful and heartfelt... but accurate. Oh God that they would be accurate.
And so I say these words... hoping not to salve the soul, but to offer hope as well as challenge her thought process...
We were never promised a world of peace.
From the fallen order of Adam and Eve, we have been on a downward spiral ever since (read the old testament - you will see the evil there for sure!) John 16:33 says, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.”
In times like this - it really, truly is a matter of HOW we CHOOSE to SEE. Psalm 27:13 says, “Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.” David penned these words when he was running for his life from enemies who were trying to kill him. “YET” He still had faith that IN HIS LIFETIME He was going to see the goodness of the Lord. He FOCUSES on God… his circumstances were SECONDARY. He cries out to God - but he CHOOSES to see the good.
We have to CHOOSE to see the GOOD.
And God is good. His very name defines it.
We must cling to Him like we have never done before. It really is a matter of how we see. In our world, we tend to focus on SEEING and THEN believing… but we must choose the opposite if we are to live here and that is BELIEVING to SEE! Ahh - the upside down kingdom of God. Yes!
We are born sinners in a world that lies in wickedness. WHY? Because it is satan that rules this earth. He is the prince of the air. So - it’s NO WONDER we are living in this kind of a place where evil “looks like” it’s won. But, it is UN-biblical and UN-scriptural to expect peace this side of heaven. It will not happen. Christ warned ALL of His disciples of the dangers they would face. NONE - and I DO mean NONE of what is happening in our world today has come as ANY surprise to Him. But if we know Jesus and love Jesus and CHOOSE ON PURPOSE to live for Him - there is NO evil that can win. NONE. And rest assure that when He DOES come back (and He’s going to) He will settle the argument of evil and good once and for all. Until then - we will be required to hold on with FAITH.
Fear and panic come to us when we fail to learn about the goodness of God. If we took as much time to study His goodness as we did to fear about the future, and complain about the state of evil we’re in… then we could confidently rest in His hope and not our hopelessness.
We MUST possess a SETTLED faith in the promises of God.
Think about a boat that has been shipwrecked. And we are on board. It is going to be the person who has secured a life preserver or a piece of broken timber from the ship who is contended from the storm. The REAL question is whether we can bring ourselves to think that God is good when He transfers us from the safety of the sailing ship, to the unknown clinging to the timber. If we think God is good ONLY when things are going our way… only when things are safe and comfortable and understandable and fit neatly into the box containing our definition of goodness… then the shipwreck is bound to take us by complete surprise. We have to KNOW He is good in advance, live like we believe this to be assuredly true, and trust that He is in control long before the shipwreck happens.
I believe that the evidences of God’s goodness WILL come to those who believe first. But evidences of His grace and mercy and rescue are the PRODUCT of faith - not the cause of faith. What we are doing now - how well a ship we are constructing of our own spiritual lives - matters NOW more than ever. It is only when we fail to see the GOOD that DOES exist in the world, that we lose all hope. And what good is faith if it is not deeply rooted in hope?
Jesus will come back. And evil will not prevail in the end. My hope rests in this.
