We casually flip a light switch, confident there will be electrical current to our light. We seat ourselves on chairs, confident they are sturdy enough to hold us. We breathe easy as elevator doors close, trusting the manufacturer for its safe operation. We board airplanes, believing that the working parts will function properly, and that the cockpit crew will do what is necessary to get us safely to our destination. And most of these things we do with little concern unless some dear friend has just related some tragedy about electricity, chairs, elevators, planes, or pilots (likely, you have the distinct pleasure of knowing someone like that, too).
Where does this assurance come from? Isn’t it from experience where the anticipated outcome has happened as planned? Haven’t those things sufficiently proven themselves where nonchalance is merited? Doesn’t the dependability of these things help make life simpler? But what about life on the grand scale, the spiritual side, the eternity side? What about God?
Paul’s letters to the churches are super-saturated with God-confidence. And at the right time, too. Being identified with Jesus in Paul’s day was not a ticket to easy street. It was more like an invitation to trouble, an open door for persecution and misunderstanding. It carried with it the threat of betrayal, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom. Certainly, for Jewish believers, there was also expulsion from family and synagogue. There was the daily juxtaposition of all these things with the glorious promises of salvation and eternity in the presence of Jesus. It would have been understandable if fears and misgivings made cracks in the original joy they experienced in receiving the message of Jesus.
But beyond the 1st Century believers’ issues, lots of Christians today, assailed by life’s pains and the world’s adversities and the flesh’s weaknesses, wonder how long they can endure. They ask questions which receive no discernible answer. They pray and wait and wait and pray. Is there truly hope? Paul shouts a resounding Yes! He acknowledges both; the good and the bad, the beautiful and the beastly, the soaring joys and the desperation and frustration of failures and woundings. And so we take ourselves to the Scriptures, the Eternal, Living Word of God, finding there, blessed comfort and a renewal of the joy of our salvation. Looking forward to seeing you ‘in it for the long haul’ saints tomorrow, 10 AM, 2 PM UK, 3 PM FR*. PD
