So there’s heaps of stuff and scary things happening with massive floodings, tornadoes and earthquakes throughout states and countries and now ~ now beheadings in Sweden and on and on it goes and yeah, where it stops nobody knows. Hope? What ‘s that in days like these? Days of shootings, bombings, lawlessness, wars, turmoil, strife, financial crisis and natural disasters on every front and at every turn. It appears that our world is being set up for knock down and its all just so messy and unnerving isn’t it?
Happy New Year!!
Ok, tell me how ‘happy” can make a comeback after all that’s been lost, even in the past year with so many victims, so many deaths, so many losses, and so few wins?
Paul knew losses all too well. He knew desperate suffering even for the sake of innocence! Imprisoned wrongly, yet his chains advanced the Gospel. He reminds us of it in Philippians 1: 12, “Now I want you to know brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.”
Oh yeah, he knew all about suffering but he saw the bigger picture and the golden lining that it came wrapped in! He looked deeper to find the good. Perhaps we can too! Perhaps if we look deeper than the scary surface of random happenings and deeper than the inevitable, looming fears and demands and threats that hang over the days of our lives, we can find the gold lining too. So go ahead and look! There’s no room for fear when we look for the good, the noble, the right, the true, the lovely, the pure and the admirable. Think on these things but don’t just think on them ~ practice them and the God of peace will be you. Philippians 4:8.
As believers, God’s got us and we’re on the victory side despite all the nasty stuff that sin brings into the picture. Sin? It’s rampant in this messy world and ruins and destroys all in its path. It’s surely taken us down it’s beaten path and taken its toll on our world and us and continues to destroy even the innocent. So unfair it is, but yet through all of this hardship, find, as Paul did, the joy and the courage to face the next moment and the next day and the next year and say with him, as he pens the words in
Philippians: 18, 20,21: “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice……I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
If your days get scary, there’s still hope in that, because God’s got it and He is Hope for this old world and He’s got you and He has your gold lining all laid out wrinkle free in His perfect plan! It’s so peaceful there! Trust Him when the days are long and the nights are dark!
❤ ❤ ❤
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 