A Time Is Coming

The earth is groaning with hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and forest fires.  People are groaning with poverty, physical sickness, mental illness, and broken relationships. In it all we ask ourselves — why?  I’m sure you’ve heard people ask the question, “if there is a God and if He cares, then why doesn’t He stop the suffering?”

Many of you will know that God created the earth and its people in perfection.  The first man had an opportunity to stay in this paradise by following the ways of God or to suffer consequences of imperfection, destroying a once flawless life, by his own choice.  Man chose the latter; therefore today, we all suffer the consequences. The earth suffers, mankind suffers, but what does God do?  He goes on loving.  He goes on comforting us in our suffering, and most wonderfully, He provides a way out.

You see, God could have washed His hands of all of us because of mankind’s original choice, but His perfect love would not let Him turn His back on us.  Instead, He gave a wonderful promise.  He has promised that there is coming a time when the earth will once again be made new and mankind will never again live in poverty or sickness.  A time is coming when there will be no more sorrow or tears.  A time is coming when joy and peace will fill the earth and all its inhabitants for eternity.

The above is great news, but it also comes to each one of us as a result of a choice.  Like the first man, we too, must choose either God’s way or our own.  The Apostle Paul said in II Corinthians 4:8 & 18, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken.  We are perplexed but we don’t give up and quit. We don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen.  For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.”

We do not have to be consumed by today’s troubles; we can walk through them in the very strength of God.  We don’t have to wallow in despair of our current situations; we can live in the hope that a time is coming when tears and sorrow will be no more.

God Himself urges us on like a fan in the stands calling out for his team  to go, go, go!  Cross the finish line!  Be a winner!  A time is coming when a glorious eternal prize will be ours.