To Encourage You

James 5:8 “Be patient . . . for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

Hebrews 11 has come to be known as “the faith chapter.” In it we are given numerous examples of believers who, through the ages, lived by faith.  They were people like Moses who chose to wander in the wilderness with the nation of Israel rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin as a royal son of Pharaoh in Egypt during that time, though he most certainly could have.  We are told about Noah who built an ark and thereby saved his family based only upon the Word of God that a world-wide flood, something no one alive at that time had ever seen, was coming.  We are told about Abel, who, because he faithfully worshipped the Lord, was murdered by his brother. One example after another is given to us of those who patiently endured and lived a life of faith, trusting what God had told them no matter that what they were seeing all around them might have been screaming to turn from God and go their own way. They were people who trusted in the promises of God to the bitter end, even though many of them “died in faith not having received the things promised.” Yet they saw them with the eyes of faith and “greeted them from afar . . . having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth.” 

And so, the Bible calls us, like them, to hold on.  It calls us to patience, to endurance, to a life of faith that hangs on, because, as the verse above tells us, “the coming of the Lord is at hand.”  It’ll be soon for every one of us. Either He will come to us at the second coming, or we will go to Him at our death.  

But will it be worth it all?  Will it be worth it all to have clung to Christ in this life when so many around us have not?  Will it be worth it for those who are suffering in Chinese, Eritrean, and North Korean prisons simply because they are followers of Christ? Will it be worth it for those who have been slaughtered by Isis, Boko Haram, and other terrorist organizations because of their belief in Christ? And will it be worth it for Christians throughout the ages whom the Bible doesn’t hide from us but plainly tells us in Hebrews 11 “were tortured . . . suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment . . . were stoned, they were sawn in two, (and) killed with the sword.  (Who) went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated . . . wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” 

For the answer, let’s read the words of Ephesians 2, where we are told that “it is by grace we have been SAVED (no matter that it might often look to us to be the opposite) through FAITH.” And why did God do this?  “So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  You see, for those who believe, there is coming an eternity of the immeasurable blessings of God’s kindness in exchange for the limited sufferings of this short life. There is coming the infinite kindness of God poured out on the faithful forever.  As the apostle Paul told us in Romans 8:18, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” 

So, do you want to experience this? Do you want to live for all eternity in such a blessed state?  Well, if you do, be patient, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.  It will most certainly be worth it all in the end.