—-what I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.–John 13:7
You’ve heard it said,”When you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart”, but we often fail to do as we say. We know we are to “walk by faith, not by sight”, but we often do the latter. We call ourselves “believers”, but sometimes we are doubters. And, since without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) this is a major mistake not a minor matter. It is an awful insult to God when we fail to trust Him. We ought to do better! But,to do better we have to recognize some things.
God is at work, He always is, in ways far beyond our ability to understand. That is to be expected –do you really think that we ought to know everything about God? But, to avoid panic we must remember that His ways are perfect and that bye and bye we will shall understand. Knowing we shall know brings peace to our heart. This simple fact changes our feelings. Here we are–
–confused, hereafter we will comprehend
–burdened, hereafter we will be blessed
–grieved, hereafter we will be glorified
–in persistent pain,hereafter we will have permanent pleasure
The difference between here and hereafter is huge– more than the mind can presently imagine!
Here we question–hereafter we will acknowledge His works
Here we doubt–hereafter we will admire His wisdom
Here we complain–hereafter we will adore His ways
Here we resist–hereafter we will accept His will
Hereafter we will see that God was right and we were wrong. Hereafter we shall not have any questions, doubt, or complaints– we will be at perfect peace for all eternity. And it’s not just the fact that bad things come to an end that is so thrilling, it’s also about seeing how God used the bad for good. In other words, we will see that in a strange way that we could have never seen before, that even the the painful problems we so despised were necessary. Here we wonder why God permits sin, suffering, and pain. Hereafter we shall see that it all was needful to the completion of God’s eternal purpose. I can live with that! –HDS
