And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. — Rev 21:3 & 4
Through the course of any given week, we hear a lot of bad news. You simply turn on the television to a news channel and it seems that all you will hear is negative news. People that are sick and dying. You hear about people who were killed or lives that were cut short by tragedy.
There is no denying that our world is a world of sorrow, heartache, and pain. From the beginning of time and the entrance of sin into the world, we have dealt with these struggles. Throughout that same time, people have sought hundreds of ways to deal with these things.
Some have turned to the pleasures of the world in an attempt to disconnect from the difficulties of life. Some have turned to medication, counseling, and other measures. Those all have their place, but they can never fully address the difficulties of life. No matter how excellent the medication, exceptional the counselor, or how exhilarating the feeling, we will still be left to face the challenges and difficulties of life.
Then there is one of my favorite words in all of the English language: but. For all of humanity, if this were the best that it ever was, it would be rather disappointing. If the sorrows, heartaches, pain, death, and difficulties of life were the best that we could ever experience, it would be rather depressing.
But thank God that’s not the final chapter! Scripture tells us that all of these things in our world will one day pass away. No more death, sorrow, pain, difficulty, or heartache. All of them will be gone forever. As challenging as things may be right now, keep your eyes focused on the future. One day we will look back and say it was worth it all.
