Through Faith and Patience…

Scripture:  Ecclesiastes 7:8 (NKJV) - The end of a thing is better than the beginning.

Folks began protesting within a week after Easter for the state to be “re-opened.”  Covid-19 had made its ferocious debut upon our nation, and the entire world and was fast threatening to hijack the approaching spring and summer months!  Lives were and continue to be both threatened and taken by this virus, and yet, the end—if there is such a thing—may STILL not be in sight!  Threats of a fall resurgence loom on the horizon.  Surely, as it pertains to the numerous troubles gripping the world more intensely these days, we can all heartily agree with today’s Scripture verse and, perhaps more earnestly than ever, we who are Christ’s embrace Revelation 22:20—“Even so, COME, LORD JESUS.”
 
 What, indeed, shall we say about all these things, as we persevere in the midst of these shaky earthly foundations? News broadcasts are saturated with reports of world economies (including our own) on the brink of calamity, lost jobs and corporate shut-downs, spikes in domestic violence, worsened by “shelter-in-place” policies, and the unanticipated spread of mass home education—the latter of which in and of itself is not such a terrible thing, though, in light of Deut. 6:7.  In short, we’re surrounded by an ever-widening circle of changes in the once common day-to-day activities of life! 
  
To the reader who may be drowning in anxiety over all the uncertainties, I say make haste to reach Jesus, as did the man in Mark 5:2-6, who was under attack by dark spiritual forces over which he, too, had no authority or control.  To those who are trusting in Christ Jesus one day at a time, I say, keep on obeying the words of Romans 8:31-34. To summarize:  believe that He is trustworthy as our Yahweh-Jireh and will supply all of our needs!  We can rest in the blessed  hope that we, especially as His elect ones, are the recipients of our Lord’s faithful intercession!  That said—BE ENCOURAGED, family!

Prayer:  Dear Father, while we cleave all the more tightly to You, trusting in Your faithfulness, help us with grateful and patient hearts to sing these words from “Amazing Grace:”  “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; t’was grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”  Thank You, in Jesus’ name—Amen! (hymn by John Newton)

(by Denise Diggs)