Bedtime stories for our children generally end like this; “and
so they lived happily ever after” and for good reason. Who
wants to send a child off to sleep in despair? When you watch a movie, do
you, like me, want the plot to resolve with the triumph of good over evil, with
the two who are in love finding each other again? I pull for the good
guys to win. I eagerly wait for the villains to get what they have coming to
them. But, is life like that?
In the moment, we don’t always find ourselves with a joyful
outcome, do we? I find myself praying this Psalm. "My soul is in
anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me
because of your unfailing love." (Psalm 6:3-4, NIV) Moses spoke
of the "heaven that is over thy head shall be brass."
(Deuteronomy 28:23, KJV) which was a way of saying that prayers seemed to go
nowhere, that they were unheard, unanswered. Every Christian will go
through seasons of life when sorrows out number joys, when disappointments
tumble one upon another. Adding to the pain, there will be those well-meaning,
but ill-informed friends who are Job’s comforters. They will suggest that the
suffering saint has not prayed well enough or that his sins have shut off the
blessings of his God.
While it could be true that we find ourselves in the mire
because we walk far from the paths the Lord calls us to or because we do not
listen for His voice, there is ample evidence in the Scripture that saints
suffer within the permitted will of the Lord, too. Like it or not, God allows
all of us to experience trials. In them, He refines our character, strips
away superficiality, and draws us to a singular love. But, we must
remember His promise that He will triumph! The
resolution of all things may not come on Friday or at the end of the
month!
After preaching terrible judgment, Amos hears this from the
Lord: “In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair
its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, so that
they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,”
declares the LORD, who will do these things. “The days are coming,” declares
the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by
the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from
all the hills." (Amos 9:11-13, NIV) The kingdom line restored,
the destroyed cities rebuilt, famines replaced with abundant harvests!
God says, “and they will live happily ever after!”
The New Testament focuses one a event as proof positive of
the ultimate triumph of good – the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I you
are struggling with suffering, if you feel that your faith is slipping away,
spend time in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. There we find
the plot line resolving. The wrong will be made right, the evil will be
judged, the good and godly find their reward. Death will be swallowed up with
eternal life. It is a grand chapter that helps us to make sense of
this present world. It is no fairy tale. The chapter opens with a defense
of the historicity of Christ’s triumph return from the grave. Then, we read
"On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of
their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment
and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of
things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and
replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the
saying will come true: Death swallowed by triumphant Life! Who got the last
word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now? It was sin that made death
so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive
power.
But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all
three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank
God! With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And
don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that
nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort." (1 Corinthians
15:52-58, The Message)
It is not a fairy tale. It is not wishful thinking. It is
the decree of the Almighty God - "He who testifies to these things
says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation
22:20, NIV)
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