I have recently been doing my daily readings using a book based on my favourite hymn 'In Christ Alone' by Stuart Townend. It's a great way to do daily Bible readings, by taking a line from a hymn and breaking it down to see what it means and applying it to everyday life.
Today the line of the song was:
'When fears are stilled, when strivings cease' - the Bible reading was Rev 7:9-10, 13-17 and the reading was:
"In Christ we have the hope of eternity.
Have you experienced those wonderful moments in life that sneak up on us - the times when we realize that everything in our existence is at peace? They don't happen often it seems, but they do happen. They may last only for an evening, drfiting off into sleep, when the epiphany comes that we have no worries and no cares. All is right in our world, and we are comforted.
But the peace never lasts. The window always closes, and once again we are thrust into a world of deadlines and traffic, searching for babysitters and paying bills, getting into arguments with loved ones and battling our particular temptations. Our peaceful moment has gone and we may not have taken the opportunity to enjoy it.
These moments were never intended to sustain us. While we live on earth, we will never be able to live a life composed of these moments, because we live in a flawed world, a sinful society.
These moments are merely glimpses of Heaven.
They are echoes of the world for which we were created.
They are harbingers of eternity, when time will no longer exist. A time when our fears are stilled and our strivings cease.
They are moments in which we understand, however vaguely, what we have through Christ. In Him alone."
How true that is in my life, I do have moments of real joy and happiness, but they seem to always be overshadowed by the negatives in life that all too often get me down.
Oh to be in heaven, where all these things will be far from us!
