Waiting doesn’t come
easily. We often want to know how a story is going to end whether in fiction or
in our own lives. For me, though I don’t wish to speed things up, I’m still often
eager to glimpse the next chapter, curious what it will look like.
By God’s design, the
future is unknown to us. We know not what next year or even tomorrow will bring;
we know not what our children’s lives will look like when they’re grown; we
know not how many days we have ahead of us—there could be thousands or there
could be but one. Between this day and our last, there are pages, chapters, of
our story that we can’t possibly anticipate no matter how much we try. Though we
know there will be seasons of joy and of grief, we don’t know the details.
Do you ever wonder why
God designed life—our future—to be something we cannot know? Perhaps one day
He’ll illuminate his reasons, but even in simple, finite reflection we realize
how the unknown cultivates in our hearts a deep trust in the only One who knows
all things.
Yes, the days of our
future are uncertain to us. Except for one. There is one day God has told us
about in detail.
In His grace and care
for us—for our fretting hearts—He has revealed to us how our lives will
conclude. It’s true, of course, that we don’t know any details. We don’t know
if we’ll die young or old, surrounded by loved ones or alone, peaceful or
suffering. But this we know: if we are trusting in Jesus, we will be sustained
to the end, guiltless!
There will be perseverance
of the saints; God will sustain His people; we’re covered in blood that cannot
be washed away. With all that is unknown between today and our last day, what
grace that He has written—yes, actually written!—the final words of our story.
In the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he offers these words of encouragement:
“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Knowing that He will
sustain us to the end is not only about the last day but about every day in
between.
There’s such incredible hope in knowing that He will keep us. Even
during agonizing seasons where our faith wanes feeble and we grow weak, our hope is not in ourselves. We trust we will persevere in the faith because
of Him! We believe that we will be sustained to the end, guiltless, because
Jesus came and took our guilt. The perseverance of the saints is a gloriously
hopeful doctrine not because of anything within, but because Jesus already persevered
and, for the joy set before Him, endured the Cross for us.
For any runner, seeing
the finish line infuses the mind with hope and the body with strength. The end
is in sight! I can do this!
So it is for the
Christian. The last day is not unknown, for God has promised that He will
sustain us to the end, through our last day.
Do we see the finish
line? When the days are hard, when sin looms ugly, when weariness takes hold, there is hope when we lift our eyes and look to the finish line. For standing there, at the
end of the race, at the end of our days, is our Saviour. And He’s standing in
our place as though we’d already run the race and reached the finish line ourselves.
It's a promise. God
will sustain us through each day and He will sustain us to the end.
