Luke 21:25-28
And there will be signs in the sun, moon,
and stars. And upon the earth will be a distress
of the nations in uncertainty of the noise and violent tossing of the sea,
while men faint from fear and anticipation of the things that come upon the
world – for the power of the heavens will be agitated. And then they will see the Son of Man while
coming in a cloud with much power and glory.
And be optimistic and lift up your heads while these things begin to
become, because your deliverance approaches.
And he said a parable to them, “See the fig tree and all the trees. Whenever they should put forth sprouts now,
while seeing you all know from them that the summer is now near.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
Fear. Panic. Distress.
Uncertainty. Unknown. These will be the emotions of the world
before the coming of the Son of Man. The
heavens will be agitated. The seas will
be violent and unpredictable. Creation
will seem to be working against humanity.
As a result, human beings will be fearful and unsure how to handle the greatness
of nature. This is a fairly neat
point. Human beings like to think of
ourselves as the masters of our own destiny.
We like to think of ourselves as all powerful. But the reality is that we are only powerful
when creation behaves. Should a super-volcano
erupt, massive amounts of humanity would die and we would be impotent against
it. Should a major meteor impact the
earth, we would be powerless to stave off the cataclysmic results. Should a pulsar from far off galaxy emit a
gamma ray burst directly into our atmosphere, we couldn’t stop the immediate
consumption of our atmosphere that would occur.
The truth is that we think that we are almighty. But when nature and the heavens demonstrate
their power, we are ultimately helpless against them.
Do you like to see yourself as powerful? How can thoughts like this help us remember
that ours is a position of humility rather than pride?
Second Thought:
Once humanity is proved powerless, we will see the coming of
the Son of Man in power and glory. We
will be humbled by the chaos of the universe around us. In that moment, Jesus will appear and
demonstrate His power over the very thing that held us powerless. The truth will be clear. With respect to God, what little power we may
actually possess is meaningless and rather insignificant.
Why do you think that God will reserve His grandest display
of his power for the end? How does it
make you feel too realize that in our greatest moment of weakness God will come
in power?
Third Thought:
Jesus gives us a very special message
at this point. Notice that He tells His
disciples to be optimistic. He doesn’t
tell them to fear. He doesn’t tell them
to panic. The world will fear. The world will panic. But when we see the Son of God, we have
nothing to fear. We who walk humbly
before our God will continue to be humble in His appearance. We already acknowledge that we are only saved
through His power and grace. Why do we
need to be anything other than optimistic when we who rely upon the power of
God see His power?
Do you think that you will be able to
keep your wits about you should you live in the time of Jesus’ return? What will help you stay optimistically focused
on God in such a time?
Passage
for Tomorrow: Luke 21:29-33
No comments:
Post a Comment