Revelation 21: 1-5

Jon & April Hunter

How many of you have seen the new Star Wars movie 'Revenge of the Sith'? Being an avid sci-fi fan I have. I loved it, I was intrigued to see how the plot developed, creating the scene for the first Star Wars film, 'Episode IV - A new hope'.

Without giving too much away we see the situation getting darker and more desperate. Things go wrong at every turn. There is more and more betrayal. In the end, evil appears to triumph. But as viewers, we never get desperate, and we were never worried. Why? Because we had watched the three original films, and we knew how it would end. After 'Revenge of the Sith', comes 'a new hope' and we knew that one day the 'Jedi will Return'. The film didn't get us down because we knew how the whole story would end. Ahem... We also didn't get down because it's a film and we do have a proper sense of perspective in these things don't we?

However I do remember being much, much younger and watching 'The Empire Strikes back'. I was mortified when Han Solo was frozen and captured. I remember feeling like the world was about to end, and that evil had triumphed, that the good guys had got it in the neck. The experience was completely different because I didn't know the end of the story.

This principle extends into our Christian life as well. My last two studies 'All Change?' and 'Have you ever wondered?' looked at what God did for us, and what He is doing for us. In reality, sometimes those truths seem very, very distant in our daily experience. Sometimes we feel like the bad guys are winning, like things are not going to plan, and that what God has said He has done or is doing just isn't happening. This is when we need to know the end of the story. This is the time when we need to have hope.

Just as God forgave us, recreated our spirit within us, and is constantly changing our personality, He also promises us what He will do. He wants us to know the end of the story, that He will come through for us, that all wrongs will be made right, all evil defeated, that all things will be made new. God knows that when things get bad we need to have hope.

He has promised that when all things come to the end He will do the following things;

1) He will complete the work He has begun in our personality
(2 Corinthians 3: 18)

2) He will judge all wrong doing
(Romans 2: 16)

3) He will make us physically perfect
(Philippians 3: 21)

4) There will be no more sickness
(Revelation 21: 4)

5) We will have prepared a place for us
(John 14: 2)

6) He will wipe every tear from our eyes
(Revelation 21: 4)

Be encouraged. God has not only worked in you, and is working in you, but He will also work these things out in you. God knows things get hard, Jesus knows things sometimes get on top of you, He went through Gethsemane Himself, and He wants to give you a hope, a goal, the knowledge that it's all going to be OK at the end of the day.