It seems like everywhere we look there is bad news;
shootings live on air, natural disasters, moral indecency, poverty, suffering
and genocides. It is so easy to look at these things with sadness and distress
and worst of all with a sense of real dismay.
As Christians it is easy for us to look at this as signs
that the end of days is coming and the apocalypse is beckoning. It is even
easier for us to become disheartened by all that we see and hear, how can we
possibly have hope? More and more people are choosing a life grounded in
material goods, in lust and in sin. Where is the light in all of this?
The answer to this question is very simple, in fact the
answer has never changed, and it is time to start reminding ourselves and our
fellow Christians of this. The battle is already won, we don’t need to worry
about losing. Paul reminds us perfectly of this in his letter to Corinthians: "Where,
O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is
sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57) possibly more
powerful and relevant when he continues: “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand
firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the
Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
So when you read about over 29 million people paying to
cheat on their marital partners, when injustice seems more prevalent then
charity stand tall in faith brothers and sisters for “the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his
unfailing love”-Psalms 147:11
“And hope does not
disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
whom he has given us. 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 man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.”-
Romans 5:5-7
