In The End, Love Wins
Hope for Troubled Times
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." Revelation 21:1
The world is a scary place. We can not turn on our televisions or open our newspapers without a grim reminder that we live in a world that is marred by sin. The word sin is small: only three letters to be exact. Yet, the small, three-letter word causes gut-wrenching pain, sadness, and turmoil. Its actions are our punishment in a fallen world.
In the midst of all this pain and suffering, we find God's love. I am often amazed at how many people believe that bad things happen because God is angry. The truth is that we do not serve a violent God. Instead, we serve a loving God that has "poured" his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
The image of our Creator "pouring" His love into our hearts, is a beautiful visualization. However, we seldom stop to think about the Holy Spirit filling us with love and hope for a better tomorrow. Instead of being open to God's love, our response to pain and suffering is to close our hearts to other people and to close our hearts to God.
God loves us so much that He has adopted us into His family. I John 3:1 reminds us of that God's love is great. It is a love that is so great that God has "lavished" this love on us. We are also reminded that one day we will be like Him.
God never said that our lives would be free from pain and suffering. Jesus warns us many times that the Christian life is a difficult cross to bear. However, we do not have to bear the burden alone. In Matthew 11: 28-30 Christ tells us, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Today, we are in trouble. We face a world that is full of violence, poverty, oppression, and evil. The effects of sin on the world in which we live weights us down with a heavy load. The yoke of sin is a hard yoke to bear. Now is the time to find rest in Christ.
However, Christ gives us so much more than rest. When we come to Christ, we soon find the strength to hope for a better world. We have been assured that one day the world that we know will pass away. We should not fear the coming of the new heaven and the new earth because when Christ returns, there will be happiness, peace, and joy. There will be no more hunger and no more pain. Christ will have conquered evil and sin will be no more. The beauty of this promise is that Christ will not conquer sin with violence; He will conquer sin with love.
In the end, love always wins.
