Encouragement

These days are hard. They are hard in every which way. Christians are being persecuted at increasing pace and increasingly horrific ways. Of the ones who are not being persecuted, we are grieving them, and praying for them too. It's hard to read of brethren being killed for their faith.

Economic times are hard. It is a struggle to put food on the table, and Americans are living well compared to other nations. More people are living hand to mouth and that gets wearing fast.

These times are spiritually hardest of all. It grieves me, and many others, to see the apostasy rising so fast. Beloved pastors, brethren, whole denominations and entire churches slitting away under falsity or being chewed up by wolves.

Politics, oy. What can we say about politics and government. Trusting the process is nigh impossible given the election frauds we've seen lately, and the government is at best dysfunctional and at worst simply rapacious against the people it is supposed to serve.

We are seeing the dismantling of every system and we mourn the slide of America into the abyss. Where did our country go?? I am convinced that the rapture will be the event that tips America and also the world into the economic abyss and also decimates America so much by gutting it of born-again Christians that we won't be more than a blip in prophetic action from that moment on.

It occurs to me that we are grieving, saying goodbye to this world as we know it. People get stuck there, though. They obsess on America's decline, the world's unraveling, the fact that "we're not mentioned in prophecy." They wonder if things will get back to normal, ever.

Remember something important though. Jesus said the end time will be as birthpangs. The end time started when He ascended and will end when He returns. But birth pangs increase in immediate advance of the birth after having begun almost unknowingly and benignly. Birth pangs are painful and we can all attest to how painful these days are. (They will get worse, and bloodier, though)

But the birth pains bring...new birth. Look forward! New birth is a blessing. New birth yields a sweet, innocent new life. When a woman is pregnant, we never say, 'Gee, I hate to let these backaches go.' Or, "I'll miss that morning sickness.' Or, 'I loved swelling feet and high blood pressure!' No, pregnancy is a time to be endured, not clung to, because it harbors the gestation of a promise: new life in a new start.

Look forward, people. Jesus is coming! He will renew all, reverse the curse, and we shall be with him always. As in a pregnancy, this body we are in will be made new after the baby Kingdom is born. We won't be carrying this weight, this pain. All will be well, for our Savior will come. We shall be with Him always.

We are grieving and that is all right. But don't stay in the grief. We don't mourn the end of the pregnancy. We are preparing to welcome the blessed arrival of the King and His Kingdom!
Tweet