Thinkaloud | in times like these

We have an eternal hope

Many people are afraid these days. Apprehension furrows many brows and grips hearts. The young, the old and the middle-aged live with a sense of diffused anxiety that hangs around like a cloud. Even at times of great happiness the dark shadow of “What does the future hold?” comes to many as a deadening spirit of foreboding. How true is the biblical analysis of the times in which we live, “… men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth…” (Luke 21: 26).

Does anyone know what is coming on the earth? Is there a prophet who can spell out in detail what the future holds? There are prophets who say they have detailed timetables of what are called “the end times”. According to the Word of God they are false prophets. God has ensured that no one can predict the future with total accuracy. Such knowledge is His alone, and He has chosen not to share it.

This does not mean that God has left us without hope. To the contrary, those who have committed their lives to Jesus Christ, who have accepted Him as Saviour and who live in a way that is pleasing to Him, have every reason to be joyful and full of hope. Such believers are convinced that the Creator is in control of human affairs. The Bible clearly says that the human race is not autonomous. Both the beginning and the end of human life are in God’s hands. Events will follow the course He has determined.

But what are people to do when fear, anxiety and terror seize them? The answer is to look to the roots and foundation of life. A warm evangelical song that was on the lips of many Christian believers some years ago points in the right direction.

In time like these, you need a Saviour,
In times like these you need an anchor,
Be very sure, be very sure your anchor holds
And grips the solid Rock.
This Rock is Jesus, yes, He’s the One,
This Rock is Jesus, the only One.
Be very sure, be very sure your anchor holds,
And grips the solid Rock.

Human pride of accomplishment notwithstanding, the only sensible and realistic course of action is for a person to accept that God has good intentions towards us. He does not want anyone to be lost eternally, nor does He want anyone to live in fear. When He whose nature is love comes into a life, fear is cast out, to be replaced by trust and confidence in the One whose life-giving embrace meets the deepest personal need. “God,” wrote the Apostle Paul to his young assistant Timothy, “has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1: 7, KJV).

And how should believers handle such freedom from fear and anxiety? How will their lives be affected? Peter, the fearful disciple who became the fearless leader of the early Church in Jerusalem, wrote to believers on this subject, “In view of the fact that all these things [the world as we know it] are to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be? Surely persons of good and holy character, who live expecting and earnestly longing for the coming of the day of the Lord.

“Because, my dear friends, you have a hope like this before you, I urge you to make certain that such a day would find you at peace with God and man, clean and blameless in his sight” (1 Peter 1: 11, 14, Phillips).

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud.

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