Meditation for Monday
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:19
Several years ago, I was watching the steady upward trend of the Dow Jones Industrial index, and made the observation that we had seen the last of the low numbers of a few months earlier. I was wrong! Within weeks, recession had struck and stock markets tanked, wiping out all of the gains of several years. Another time, I was checking the track of a hurricane in the Caribbean, and noted that it was veering to the northeast. I observed that our area would be spared any impact of that storm. I was wrong! The hurricane changed course and within a couple of days, we were experiencing heavy rains that destroyed much of our recent landscaping efforts. Whether we are talking about financial trends, weather patterns, disease outbreaks, or conflicts among nations, one thing remains constant: the inability to predict the outcome with any amount of certainty. We simply cannot rely on what people think is going to happen. That is why we stand in awe at the Word of God. Its predictions are – and always have been – perfectly accurate and totally dependable.
Old Testament prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus have been fulfilled, proving the accuracy of those prophecies. The descriptions of the seven ages of Christianity, as foretold in the seven messages to the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2 and 3 have proven accurate, as have many other of the prophecies in the Book. With this record of accuracy until now, we can be confident that the prophecies concerning the future will also come to pass just as it is recorded.
Do we take heed to the Bible’s prophecy, as Peter tells us we should? We have the admonition that we need to be working, waiting, and watching for our Lord’s return. Our lives will be worthwhile if we live them in light of the imminent return of our Lord and the rapture of His people. We can also live in confidence that many of the fears that grip our world are actually under God’s total control. For example, the world spends untold billions every day to prevent catastrophic destruction from global warming, a catastrophe that Scripture makes clear is not going to happen. The takeover of the world by Islam, one of the current fears, is also not going to happen, just like world domination by Communism, a dire threat of a few decades ago, did not and could not happen. If we examine the events and trends of the world in light of the Word of God, the more sure word of prophecy, we can rest in knowing that the world simply does not know, but God does.
Don’t worry today about what is going to happen. And don’t listen to the scaremongers of the world. Find out what the Bible says, and relax in knowing that the Word of God is the more sure word of prophecy. -Jim MacIntosh