Do you hold on to people, places and things with everything you have? Many of us do our best to heal divisions within our families, resolve conflict with friends and do what we can to be a peacemaker. We do our part to encourage others and hope others will do the same.
You and I pray and hope for family and friends’ physical, emotional and spiritual healing, hope for peace, reconciliation and restoration in our communities and relationships. I see the tears of disappointed people I know or just met and feel their pain.
There are stories of people we know at the end of their rope. They are rich and poor, young and old who are weary and undone. Speechless. Words can’t even express their sorrow. Take this pain away God or take me home…
Hoping for a better day and a better tomorrow
In this age of social influencers and celebrities selling immediate gratification for their benefit at our expense, it just adds to the mix of frustration, apathy and indifference. As Bob Dylan sang, “I used to care, but things have changed.” All this gets downright discouraging and many have become disengaged and completely isolated. COVID hasn’t helped…
Upside Down World
In this crazy mixed-up world where wrong has become right and right has become wrong we all have one thing in common, the need for hope. What we believe about our hope directly impacts how we are experiencing our present. We are irreducibly hope-based creatures.
As Christ followers God’s Word declares that one day we will enter into a glorious rest with indescribable wonders. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” I Corinthian 2:9
On the one hand, we can’t possibly comprehend or imagine what heaven will be like. Yet, the Bible gives us so much information about heaven that it is right for us to think about what the future holds. Revelation 21 provides some of the best and most beautiful insight into our future resting place.
Holding On
We can hold on to our hope and promise that there will come a day when, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4 Songwriter Jeremy Camp put it this way:
“We’ll see Jesus face to face, but until that day we’ll hold on to you always. I know the journey seems so long you feel you’re walking on your own, but there’s never been a step where you walked out all alone. Troubled soul don’t lose your heart cause joy and peace He brings and the beauty that’s in store outweighs the hurt of life’s sting.”
Are you looking forward to that day when the One you’ve lived for will wipe away all the sorrows you’ve faced or are facing now? Please know that there will be a better day ahead and until that day comes hold on to the One who is your hope now in this life and into the next.
There is a better day coming!
Instead, they (Hebrews 11) were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:16
