Living In The Here and Now With Hope Toward The There and Then

My Utmost For His Highest

 

Behold, He is coming with clouds… —Revelation 1:7

 

“In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. “The clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. […] His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child— a relationship simply between God and our own souls, and where other people are but shadows. […] There is a connection between the strange providential circumstances allowed by God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God.”  CHAMBERS

 

There are any number of analogies that we might use to describe the challenges that each of us face in this life.  It doesn’t require masterful writing to awaken you to the reality of trouble, trials, and sorrows. You also understand that there is the “here and now” (our life on this planet), and there is the “there and then” (eternity in heaven).  We live our lives in the “here and now” with our hope fixed on the “there and then”.  But our new life is so much bigger than that.  The Lord is our strength and will help us to endure whatever it is we face in the “here and now”.  I don’t know if you are familiar with Indiana Jones.  There is a scene where a man approached Indiana wielding a huge sword.  For a moment, Indiana is panic-stricken, and then he remembers he has a gun in his holster.  All too often that is what we do.  We panic in the face of a crisis and forget that we have the Spirit in us.  We are not promised that we will not have to endure pain, sickness, or heart-ache in the “here and now”.  But we are promised that we can endure whatever may happen to us.  Trust or faith and obedience.  They go together like a horse and carriage. You can’t have one without the other. CHARLEY

 

Trust and Obey

 

When we walk with the Lord In the light of His Word,

What a glory He sheds on our way; While we do His good will,

He abides with us still, And with all who will trust and obey.

 

Not a shadow can rise, Not a cloud in the skies,

But His smile quickly drives it away; Not a doubt or a fear,

Not a sigh or a tear, Can abide while we trust and obey.

 

Not a burden we bear, Not a sorrow we share,

But our toil He doth richly repay; Not a grief or a loss,

Not a frown or a cross, But is blest if we trust and obey.

 

Trust and obey, For there’s no other way  To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey.