GOD’S BIG PLAN
Over recent months, we have been saddened by terrible headlines: conflicts where thousands of innocents have died, and images circulating on the internet of riots and disorder. Fears about well-funded and organised terrorism have become common in recent days. All of this can quickly lead us to fear and despair. In the midst of all of this darkness and pain, we can forget this vital truth: there is a God, and He is working to a master plan. Abraham was now told there would be a period of extreme difficulty for his people – no less than four hundred years! Imagine receiving a word from God that promised blessing for your family, and for your ethnicity – from the year 2424 onwards - that’s a delay of 400 years! That’s exactly what Abraham experienced. But in making such a pledge, God was revealing Himself as the eternal One, bigger than the small skirmishes between humans, able to work out strategies and plans that would continue long after Abraham had died.
God will ultimately have His way, and the Kingdom of peace and grace, where evil is banished, and tears are wiped away, will come. As we live in the gap between the now and not yet, our hearts break when the innocent suffer. Our voices must be raised to defend those silenced by oppression. Our hands must work to do whatever we can to be agents of that same kingdom while we wait for the fullness of its coming. But let’s not forget this: this reality is not the ultimate reality, and although there is darkness in the earth, we remain firm in the hope that light will come when the winning Jesus is finally revealed. Every knee will bow. God has a big plan, and God wins.