DAY 331

HAPPILY EVER AFTER…REALLY?

Ezekiel 30, 31 & 32 and 1 Peter 4

As I read Ezekiel cry out in lament over Egypt, and the other nations, I need to remind myself that this is prophecy…it has not yet happened, but it will…and that is different than what we read in 1^st Peter—since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh…1^st Peter brings me back to the reality that “it is finished” and that “it is finished” is a lot different than “happily ever after.”

If you “had arrived” and accomplished all you set out to in a certain area of your life, or if you had completed some great masterpiece, or if you finished some project that you had wanted to finish…might you enjoy it…might you live a bit differently? The person who has run a marathon is different than the person who has not yet done so. The person who has finished a detailed woodworking project is more confident than one who has never put his hand to the plane. The person who has made the soufflé is a little less fearful of it “falling.” The one who has faced the difficulties of a task, any task, knows that there a difficulties and challenges that await them. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

These are the two points that I want to merge—first being that “it is finished,” God has won the victory in Christ Jesus, there is nothing more than to live as one who knows what it is like to live as a person who has run their first marathon, made their first/second piece of furniture, or…you create your own metaphor. I want to encourage you to have a sense of confidence that Christ has finished this for you and LINK that with the idea that you have more running to do, more furniture to make, more LIVING FOR GOD IN CHRIST to do. And in that living for God in Christ…Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. There is a misperception out in the world that if a person loves God, or loves Jesus, then they will live happily ever after! To that I say, really? That is Disney© that is not real life. Real life is way richer, and therefore more challenging, than “happily ever after.”

Of course a big key in all this is that we are not the ones who finished it—no, no, that was God on the Cross. 1 Peter 4 holds up to us encouragement and a question. The encouragement is what I have tried to capture above, the question is…”Will we try and live this way…confident of and in God…obedient to God…will we try and live this way among the trials…or will we give into the pressure and culture of the day chasing some “happily ever after” mirage?” The Fall of Jerusalem and the judgment of the nations around her stand as testimony to what happens in real life when people chase “happily ever after” rather than walk with God.