“Great Days Ahead”

      “There are great days ahead.”  The quote from a favorite writer, penned in the 1950s concerning scientific advances, always reminds me of the far greater hope known by born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

    “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever” (Isaiah 32:17).

     Such conviction flows from the truth that wherever we are going, the Lord Jesus Christ awaits us there (and travels with us as we journey).  Whatever will happen to us, be it blessing, difficulty, or mundane everyday reality, He will enable us to rejoice, endure, and honor Him.  Whoever crosses our path, whether friend, foe, or anonymous passerby, will provide opportunity to give and/or receive the Lord Jesus in by example, word, or deed.  We journey to a future in which the great fact will be the same reality that graces this moment: “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

     “My expectation is from Him” declared the Psalmist who discovered that in palaces of plenty, caves of hiding, battlefields of conflict, and gravesides of loss, one prevailing truth caused all to unite in ultimate good and blessedness: “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about His people from henceforth even forever” (Psalm 125:2).  “Round about” speaks not only of proximity, but of time.  We look back, and the Lord was there.  We open our eyes in the present, and He is here.  And we gaze toward the future with perfect assurance that He will be there.  Indeed, there are always great days ahead for believers in the Lord Jesus because a great God awaits us wherever we may be going.  As we join David in expectation, so will we join him in the joyous discovery that led him to pen so many psalms of praise, thanksgiving, and wonder, including this one…

“I have set the LORD always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.  Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

(Psalm 16:11)