Being Sure

Key Texts: Job 19:25-27; 2 Timothy 1:12

Do you ever feel as if the world is spinning just a little too fast out of control?

I know I do.

During my period of recovery from a nasty fall, and the resultant fractured shoulder, I have had plenty of time to watch the news.  In fact, I’ve had way too much time to watch the news.

• Increasingly brutal violence springing up everywhere
• An airliner being intentionally crashed into a mountainside claiming so many lives
• Difficult and trying diplomatic (and not so diplomatic) negotiations dragging on and on with the possibility of nuclear warfare looming on the horizon
• Diseases I’ve never heard of making their presence felt
• Politicians I’ve heard way too much of making their presence felt
• Road rage
• Moral apathy
• Record draught
• Record snow
• And that ice – that very dangerous ice – which was the cause of my downfall – literally.

Oh, Brother, give me a break.

Like I said, I’ve had way too much time to watch the news.

Happily, that’s not all I have had time to do.

I have also had more time to turn to my Bible and to my God – and there have found reassurance, and expectant hope, and the peace that “passeth all understanding.”

Sure, I’ve heard the news – much of it bad.

But more important, I’ve heard and seen and felt that “good news” – the gospel – once again as another Easter season has begun.

Two men powerfully exclaimed the very thing of which I speak.  One was named Job, the other was named Paul.  Between their two lives spanned hundreds of years of world events.  They lived very different lives, yet shared a common message:

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another.  How my heart yearns within me!”  (Job)

“I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”  (Paul)

They both suffered; they both endured; they both believed in the power and grace of the living God.

Being sure of something good is a wonderful thing.

Being sure of the promises of God is too wonderful a thing to ever fully describe.

“I know that my Redeemer lives….”

This Easter, through the risen Christ, that eternal truth lives on and uplifts me – no matter what.

How about you?