If you are having financial troubles, setbacks…it’s not the end. If you have been lied to and deceived…it’s not the end. If you have lost your job…it’s not the end. If you have lost your home…it’s not the end.
If something has been stolen from you or if you have been robbed of your inheritance…it is not the end.
If your mate has walked away, chosen someone else instead of you…it’s not the end.
If you have just lost a loved one to death-sudden death, expected or unexpected-it is not the end. Even if your loved one committed suicide…it is not the end.
If you have behaved like an absolute fool and are mortified by what you did…it’s not the end.
If you are losing your hearing or your sight…it’s not the end.
If you are in the depths of depression, if you are battling depression or a chemical imbalance that has thrown all your emotions and even your way of thinking out of kilter…it’s not the end.
If you have learned that you have a terminal disease, a crippling disease, a wasting disease…it is not the end.
If you have stepped onto the threshold of death…it is not the end.
I can tell you all this with the utmost of confidence and know that what I am telling you is truth. It may seem like the end…you may wish it were the end…but it is not the end because God is God and the end has not yet come.
If you are convinced that whatever you are going through is the end, then one of two things is true: (1) either you are not listening to God, which means you don’t have the truth on the subject or situation, or (2) you are listening to a lie from the one who is behind it, the father of lies-the devil-who deceives the whole world.
I have spent a lot of time reading and meditating on the book of Isaiah. As I have read this book and been quiet before God, thinking about what He is saying, I have been thoroughly convinced that ultimately absolutely nothing matters but God. That is all. If I remember that and live accordingly, then I am going to live for Him and for His glory alone. If I live to that end, I will seek to live correctly in all my relationships, in all my affairs. Then, whatever happens or doesn’t happen will not be the end, for God and God alone is the end of all things.
Life is not over when the breath is taken from my body. I, too, like Israel, have a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11) because I belong to a covenant-keeping God.
As I read through Isaiah (not rushing through it but reading so as to meditate upon its truths), it has reminded me of the future which is mine, a future I have never seen, but a future as sure as the character and, thus, the Word of God!
You may say, “But, it’s not the future I am concerned about. It is the present. How do I get through the present?” It’s a good and valid question, my friend. You get through the present, whatever it is, by remembering that it is not the end.
There is a future, and the present isn’t it! Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “For which cause we faint; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a monent, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”(Note: Changed to KJV by HDS)
Every time I read through the Bible, I am overwhelmingly convinced again of the fact that my God and Father reigns supreme over all. My, how you and I need to be reminded of that over and over again! When we don’t remember this, our thinking gets skewed and we begin to live, act or respond as if whatever we are going through is “the end.” I personally think this is why so many Christians are failing at the business of life, why they are failing to live as more than conquerors. You know, don’t you, that every true Christian is an overcomer-“and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith” (1 John 5:4).
Maybe that is our problem when we think it is the end-we haven’t spent time with God in His Word, getting His perspective. So we believe a lie.
As much as I would like to convince you that it isn’t the end, whatever your situation involves, I can’t really do that. You can always come back to me and say, “That’s your opinion. You aren’t where I am.” And you would be right! It is my opinion, but it would be yours also if you would read through His entire Word, book-by-book, and take Him at His Word. It would literally make all the difference in the world-in your world.
My prayer is that you know your God intimately by being established in His Word, living a life that reverences Him for who He is: God. Not the end, but the Beginning and the End of all things.
Kay Arthur
Host, Precepts For Life
Co-CEO, Precept Ministries International
