Is there anything positive in this world to live for? We have a body, but we each also have a character. Our character is made up of our thoughts and feelings for we have control over these. Even if suffering ravages the body, the devil cannot spoil our character unless we allow Him. If we are angry or bitter about a situation it will show in our words and actions, OR we can claim God’s promises of help and find peace. Your power of choice and reasoning is something the devil can only spoil if you allow him. You can see from this that it is not fair to blame God as so many people do.
To choose for God means the promise of a new life free from the pain and disablement of this world. And God has promised to restore the years that the canker worm and the locust have eaten. These are God’s symbols for the loss we have experienced. God says throughout the Bible, ‘choose whom ye will serve’. He has given us the power of choice. He gives us the information to base that choice on, and tells us the outcomes of that choice. ‘The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Romans 6:23.
See the sordid squalor of our world, with its flies, hunger, guns, bombs, wreckage, mutilation, syringes, gutters, empty fields, deserts, gravestones, hearses, rubble and litter. Then look at faces when off guard and what do you see? Faces of sighs, emptiness, hopelessness, anger, tension, hatred, frustration, stoical resignation, eyes filling with heartbreak and grief, pain and hurt. Eyes that say, WHY? WHY? WHY?
Then look beyond that to Calvary and see Jesus on the Cross, bearing that same suffering for us in utter loneliness and rejection. But He said, ‘And I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me.’ He was lifted up on the Cross. He took our death, to give us hope and to bring an end to the hurts of the world. As He died He proclaimed ‘It is finished!’ Satan is conquered. More than that He says, ‘Come unto me and I will give you rest.
GOD’S PROMISES TO US
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him. Psalm 45:18
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Psalm 23:4
As one whom His mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66:13
Casting all your cares upon Him for He careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7
The Lord is on my side. Psalm 118:6
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. Revelation 21:4
The former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. Isaiah 65:19
He shall make an utter end, affliction shall not rise up the second time. Nahum 1:9
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