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The Christian is a person who can be certain about the ultimate even when he is most uncertain about the immediate." -David Martin Lloyd-Jones
Romans 8
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?...35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We do live in a time and a world in which bunches of folks wonder what certainty there is and whether there is an anchor amidst the great challenges. I don't need to illustrate the issues of our day and time; you know them. There are numerous articles which speak of "the pessimism of our time."
Now, I'm not one to trivialize the very real issues we face or the great burdens that many people do bear in our world. As you've heard me say before, we do God no favors by minimizing the hurts and pains people face in their lives. So the last thing we need to do is speak superficially to the very real heartaches people experience. In fact, for us Christians the proper consideration is empathy.
But, I can say and do believe that our faith cannot be essentially grounded in what the headlines or the current social, economic, political climate displays. We do not trivialize the real world but neither do we believe that in our very real lives we are without a Divine resource which can give wisdom, strength, and even hope. As we so faithfully proclaimed during the Advent-Christmas season, God is with us.
When we people of faith live our lives with hope and promise, we are sending a message to the world that we believe there is a way beyond the mess and the madness. God won't do it all for us but He certainly is here with us to empower us toward a brighter and better day.
So what is the ultimate certainty when the immediate certainty seems fleeting...God! God with us; God for us; God working among us! Thanks be to God!
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