Who are you relying on? What are you finding joy in? Where are you placing your hope?
Three verses:
Psalm 118v8 “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in humans”
Philippians 4v4 “Rejoice in the Lord always”
Philippians 3v19-20 “Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ …”
It is now 75 years since the end of World War 2 in Europe. In the UK this has been a period when the Welfare State has provided a reasonable degree of “security” for most. A period when most of our lives have never been seriously disrupted by war. A period when life down here, for a lot of the time, for most people, has held out reasonable hopes of being tolerably pleasant.
It has been reasonably easy, even for Christians, to rely on the Welfare State, to seek to find joy in the pleasures of this world, to focus our hopes in this life.
But God has now brought us into a period when governments around the world have been unable to protect their citizens from disease and death, when many things that we looked to for pleasure have been suddenly taken from us, and when there really is no rational reason to expect things will ever return to “normal”.
God is being gracious to us as Christians. He is showing us that we can’t rely on the Welfare State, or any government of any political persuasion – so that we might put our trust in him. He is taking away the things in this world that we have looked for pleasure – so that we might find joy in Christ. He is making us aware of how uncertain life in this world is – so that we might set our minds on heaven.
Psalm 118v8 “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in humans”
Philippians 4v4 “Rejoice in the Lord always”
Philippians 3v19-20 “Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ …”
God is so good to us in turning our hearts from what we cannot rely on, from what does not satisfy, and what does not last, to himself.
Augustine: “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you”.
Tim
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