If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. ~ I Corinthians 15:19
I thought of this verse yesterday as I had a few quiet moments to myself in the truck.
This summer is knocking us for a loop. None of our cows bred this year… so money we were counting on making from calf sells isn’t coming. Our pastures are mostly dust…. the hay meadow that last year made 40 bales… this year made 5.
If in this life only we have hope….
My garden is burning up. Last year the produce stand was open into August… I had to shut it down last week because everything is dead or dying or being eaten by grasshoppers. And pantry shelves that are normally full of things I’ve canned this time of year are still half empty.
If in this life only we have hope…
Gas and diesel prices are killing us. It takes almost two full paychecks to pay the gas card each month.
If in this life only we have hope….
But, praise the Lord, our hope in God is not in this life only… I will go to sleep tonight and sleep fine because I know my Redeemer lives.
If the bills don’t get paid… He still lives.
If we live on peas and Spam… He still lives.
If we have to walk everywhere…. He still lives.
No we’re not to that point… and I pray we never get there… but if we ever do it won’t change who He is.
I think our modern American church has done christians a huge disservice. We hear that if we love God bad things won’t happen to us. Prosperity, prosperity, prosperity….
But Jesus said “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
God loved Paul and look what all he went through… He loved Job… He loved John…. and we think if God loves us we shouldn’t have to go through anything? Really??
As long as we are in the world we’re going to have trials… but He has overcome this world. Our hope is not in this life only… He lives and we will live, too. We are looking for that city.
Or we should be…
Our focus has become so ME centered… I want it now… what will Jesus do for me now. We’ve lost sight of our goal.
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away ~ I Peter 1:24
This life is so fleeting… this is not all there is. If we live to be a 100 and have suffering all our days… how does that compare to an eternity with Jesus?
And yet He loves us so much that even in these present trials we have hope. Even in the midst of pain there is joy. Even in confusion we have peace. When it seems like nothing is stable we can stand planted on that solid rock.
For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God ~ Job 19:25-26
Honestly, what else matters?
