I've just been reflecting on this amazing song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF4qFdxD4kM) which reminds all those who love and follow Jesus of our Hope.
As you grow older, you face more hurts, pain and trouble. These can create bitterness and disappointment with God. Like Elijah after Mt Carmel we can run from what God has given, give up on life, let bitterness and sadness grow.
There is much said in God’s word about how we should respond - ‘A Father disciplines the children He loves’ (we have a loving father using these for His glory in us), ‘My grace is sufficient for you’ (He strengthens and enables us in our difficulties) ‘In this world you will have trouble, but … I have overcome this world’ (we find our true rest and value by looking only to Jesus) … and so much more.
But one thing can be missed … the very pain and difficulty we face is pointing us to a desire and passion for glory, a longing to be with Him where we find true joy and pain and suffering pass away. ‘To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, which is better by far’. He sets our hearts on the ‘better by far’ in and through the pain, loss, disappointment and suffering we increasingly face with age or illness. He gently leads us into it so that we will one day say with Paul ‘I have finished the race, I have kept the faith … Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.’
We are to be those who ‘long for His appearing’, who live in the reality of eternity. It’s time to look with wise eyes, rather than disappointed or angry eyes, at our trial, hurt, illness and age. It’s time to turn every trial to worship, to live and rejoice every day in the Hope that is ours in Jesus.
