End-Time Gloom?

Sometimes it is easy to walk away from the end-time message and feel a sense of hopelessness. The end-time message, however, is a message of hope.

As we look at the judgments God is going to bring upon the earth at the end of the age, we come away with the picture of a God that is more powerful than any army ever assembled or ever to be assembled on this earth. He is a God who is sovereign over all of creation. We see a picture of this as we read the life of Jesus in the four Gospels. Jesus commanded even the wind and the waves and they obeyed Him. It will be God who shakes, not just the social institutions of this world, but creation itself.

In Psalm 146:5 it says:
“How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”

That word hope in the Hebrew means to look forward with expectation to a good and beneficial state. The end-time scenario might look frightening at times, but as children of God we can look forward to the end of the age with hope in our hearts. God is a good and just God. He is a God of love and mercy, but also a God that judges sin in the human heart. Why does He judge? He judges to cause us to look seriously at our lives, repent of our waywardness, and return to Him with all of our hearts. He judges because He wants to release blessing into our lives and into our nation.

God thinks so highly of man that He has given him a free will and the ability to make real choices that make real differences in his life. We can choose righteousness or sin, good or evil. Our choices open doorways that allow for the ministry of angels or demons in our lives. Today is the day for you and me to decide to make the choices that God can bless.

The God of the end of the age is the same God that created the earth and every living creature on it, including man. He is a God that loves mankind so much that He became human Himself. He loves us so much that He allowed Jesus Christ to die to set us free from a life of death and destruction. He loves us so much that Jesus did not remain in the grave but was resurrected into newness of life and is seated in heaven with God the Father praying for us.

Remember, “How blessed is he…whose hope is in the Lord his God.” With this hope, we can look forward into the days ahead with “expectation to a good and beneficial state.”

How about you? Are you putting your hope in the Lord? Do you see God as a good and just God? Do you believe that God is sovereign over all of creation?