Apologies for the lack of blog last week. I usually write it on a day that I have some space in the diary between work appointments but the diary was full last week and there was no space. Life’s been a bit hectic and even this week was pretty tight, but I am finally sat here on Friday afternoon, with a little bit of space in my schedule to write once more.
I was watching an old sci-fi series (Farscape if you’re interested) on YouTube this week, that I used to watch with my children when they were younger. I never watched the first series back then so when I found it on YouTube, I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and watch it from the very beginning. It was interesting to see how the characters’ relationships developed from their first meeting. Many of their adventures were perilous and lives hung in the balance on a regular basis! Of course, I had already seen the characters in later series, all alive and well, so could watch, stress free, in the knowledge that everything would somehow work out for them before the end of each episode.
It then occurred to me that this is how we should be viewing the ups and downs of our own lives because we also know how the story ends. My own church music group as written a song called I’ll Rise (link here), which has that phrase in its lyrics. We know how the story ends and, even in death, we will rise again to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Jesus, when He died on the cross, won the ultimate battle over the enemy (Colossians 2:15), defeating death (Hebrews 2:14) and making a way for us to have a relationship with God (Romans 5:1). We know that we will have an eternity with our Father in Heaven (John 3:16) and, if we keep our eye on that, when we find ourselves in skirmishes with the enemy in the here and now, we should be able to put that in some kind of perspective because ‘we know how the story ends’
Paul, in Corinthians (15:57) offers thanks to God for the victory He gives us through Jesus Christ. In Romans (8:1) he reminds us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The writer of Hebrews (7:25) confirms that Jesus is able to save to the UTTERMOST those who draw near to God. We can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6).
There are films and programs that I have watched where I have been on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen but it should not be the same within my own life because I already know how the story ends; I have an eternity with God. In the meantime, when things start to get a little ‘edge of my seat’, I know that in all things, I have been made more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour (Romans 8:37).