Do you ever feel the pinch of a life under pressure? Do you wonder in those moments how you’ll find the time to consider God and His work in your life, in your family’s life, or in the life of those you hold dear? Have you forgotten that darkness comes before the dawn? Furthermore, does your gaze ever make its way into our culture–even our Christian culture–and you see pain, division, and sometimes defeat? Have you ever been let down by someone that you trusted? Have you ever been betrayed or deceived by institutions or organizations that should stand for truth and what is right? Does your own life reveal a questionable commitment to Jesus and His commands? Are there times when you do the things you shouldn’t and don’t want to do? Do you, in those seasons of intense pressure and confusion, long for a better world, a better place wherein righteousness dwells?
Me too.
Where then do you turn? When the pressure is turned on…when the culture is confusing…when your own life lets you down?
Christ.
He alone–sent by the Father–pierced through the darkness, and promises rest. He is the One who will (and does) make all things right, He is the One whom the Father sent to once and for all deal with the pressure, the confusion, and the sin that permeates our world and lives. It is Christ. He is the One.
And so, we remember. We reflect. We press on. No matter the season we hang in there, because a day is coming when Christ will return to take back and make right all that humanity has defaced, destroyed, and demeaned. The sun is moving on its course, and the dawn of a new day looms on the horizon…it’s coming…hang on…lean in…and run to Him, because He is worthy! Glory!
“And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.””
Revelation 5:2-5