buildingbodies4christ

Hope for Our World

Watching the memorial service of Ravi Zacharias yesterday evening caused a great sense of grief to overwhelm me. The great defender of our faith died last week on May 19th after battling cancer. The sadness wasn’t really from his death, although it is a sad day to lose someone of such great significance, but the sadness was from the death of my own Dad a couple of years ago.

The daughter was speaking about her Dad and as she was speaking it was just a fresh tidal wave of emotion for me. The daughter’s son said that he didn’t know who he was without his Papa. He asked his Mom, what did Papa mean to you? The dam broke while I remembered my own Dad’s words to me as she spoke of her Dad’s love for her.

After my Mom died ten years ago, my Dad called me every night. Before he hung up, he always told me to remember he loved me very much. I miss my Dad. I miss knowing he was always in my corner. I miss how he instructed me when I had trouble with my golf game. (He would correct my positioning so that I could work out my slice.) He would tell me how to do something to finish a home project or he would do it himself when he was able. My Dad was a great father and he loved his family well.

The overwhelming sadness isn’t just from the death of my Dad or Ravi it’s all the death we are focusing on right now. Death just seems to be the main topic every day. I’ve lost two aunts in the last five months. The darkness seems to keep closing in. Evil just seems to be winning every day and if I didn’t know better, I would think evil will win in the end. But I know better.

I believe in eternity and no one truly dies. For those in Jesus Christ, we are given a promise of eternal life through Jesus – we just pass from this life to the true life we are meant to live – with Him forever. We are told through Scripture we will be with Him where He is at that moment of passing. There is no darkness for those in Him – only light. We also know that we will see one another again. We have the hope of resurrection and eternal life with God (Romans 8:18-25).

I may have a sense of sadness every now and then due to the events happening around me or the world, but my underlying sense is one of hope and assurance that God is in control in all things. No matter what the evil one plans, God has a countermeasure to bring good from it for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Sometimes I just need to sit in His Word and let it wash over me. Sometimes the Word needs to fill my tank just as I get filled up being with my family. My tank needs to be full. If I start running low, my emotions and my outlook seems rather dark like there is no hope for this world. God has worked many of my troubles in this life for His glory. I know He still is going to work something out for the story of loss we feel for this day for His glory too.

I believe in a Great God who can take our troubles and make them into a great testimony. We just have to surrender our plans to His. Our plans are futile without Him. God’s plan was not to heal Ravi from cancer. God’s plan didn’t include healing my Mom from cancer or my aunt either.

But this I do know, God’s purposes will be fulfilled – I read through every story in the Bible and God works it all out in the end. God didn’t save Jesus from His suffering either – but thank God He didn’t. By His suffering, we are healed and we are saved. There was no other way to have a relationship with God unless Jesus died for our sins.

I also know we all have to suffer at some point in our lives. Maybe it’s at the end like my Mom and my aunt. We are told in Scripture (Romans 5:4) suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope. God is always about building character.

It was my aunt who rejoiced in her suffering when she found out she had cancer. She knew Jesus was right by her side. She was at peace with her end. My Mom too.

I told my Mom when we first learned of her cancer, that God had given me a sense of peace about it. I thought He was going to heal her, but He had other plans which are not truly known to this day. My Mom too felt that sense of peace and reconciled to the fact God had chosen that type of death for her.

There is a 100% guarantee we will all die one day. We just have to be ready to meet Jesus no matter what. If we are given another ten, fifteen or fifty years, we still have to live each day as if it’s our last because we never know the number of our days or the time of Jesus’ return. And yes, I have hope that I will see Jesus return in the clouds for His church. I will be ready for that day. How about you? It’s time to be ready no matter what!

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8