With so much uncertainty in the world right now, it’s easy to feel despair. The 24-hour news cycle is filled with warnings from across the world. Social media is inundated with worse-case scenarios, hatred, disrespect for others and bitterness.
If you’re a believer in Christ you probably have more of an eternal view. Yet it’s easy to get trapped in the hysteria and lose sight of the fact that God is still in control. We can substitute the truth of God’s Word with the last piece of bad news we hear.
We can accept the prison of hopelessness that the world provides and forfeit the comfort and peace that Jesus freely gives us and those who trust Him.
When we think about our own lives, it isn’t always clean and neat. While many of us would tell the story of our lives in a linear pattern, the reality is that our experiences are more like an overwhelming number of intersecting lines. The ups and downs., the challenges and the successes, the blessings and the struggles.
It’s easy to get bogged down in something that seems insurmountably painful at times. But then we move on with life once the situation drifts into the past.
We remember the hard times while forgetting the way that God has worked in the midst for our trials and troubles to carry us through them.
John 16:33 tells us “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world.”
In this world we can expect hardships, but more importantly victory. In our most trying times, God is working behind the scenes and developing our faith and character for His glory.
There is no doubt that life is hard, and the pain is very real. But we can cling to the promises of God amid suffering, and understand “that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6). We have no reason to retreat. Instead of despair, we can claim victory in Him who saved us.
This victory is not momentary success that’s dependent on good and bad times of life. It’s not tied to a disease, or a lost job or even to the death of a loved one. In a temporary world the victory we have is eternal and unchanging.
John 16:22 says, “Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”
From Pity to Praise 