Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Soon All Will Be Gone

MALACHI 4:2-3 – But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

THEME OF THE DAY. SOON ALL WILL BE GONE. You suffer. I suffer. We suffer much pain on our shared journey to be with the Lord. We hurt spiritually when temptation gets the upper hand and we yield resulting in sin. We grieve for failing the Lord still yet another time. We hurt emotionally when relationships, even the most intimate of ones – marriage and families – sour, fracture, disintegrate, and leave us with aching hearts, scarred emotions, and sometimes leave irreparable and irreversible consequences. And all of us experience the physical pain of simply getting older. Things we once physically did with ease and were simple have become hard and challenging. All these forms of pain are unavoidable in a world under the curse of God who includes pain in His judgment upon the world and humanity for man’s sinful rebellion. Yet . . . and it is a big yet, all our suffering, all our pain is of short duration. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but in all things, feelings betray us. Don’t trust them. Don’t follow them. Don’t think they are valid and reliable guides through life. They are not. Yes, they scream loudly during times of pain – spiritually, emotionally, and physically – but their voices are not “loud” enough to drown out the sure Word of God who tells us the curse is not forever and neither is our pain.

In today’s scripture, locate and meditate on the portion of scripture bringing hope in our pain. It is in the opening sentence – the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. This is the only time the phrase appears in scripture. It doesn’t identify the Son but is a characteristic in the Kingdom where the Son reigns. Yet, we cannot separate the “sun” of righteousness with the “Son” of righteousness. It is Jesus who heals spiritual pain by forgiveness. It is Jesus who soothes relational pain by being the Companion of all Companions who will never leave or forsake us. And it is in the likeness of Jesus in the glorified state that frees us forever from physical, emotional, and spiritual pain.

Soon, all will be gone. Soon, no more curse, no more suffering. What we look forward to as prophesied in today’s scripture becomes what is promised in the Revelation – Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

May the sure Word of God be our source, not to free us from current pain, but enable us to endure current pain knowing soon all will be gone when we see Him, our Great Redeemer and Physician of soul, mind, and body.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for the hope You have given me; a hope that is certain and unfading”

QUOTE: “Suffering saint, tried believer, and weary believer, hang in there. It will all be over soon”