The longer I live the more I’m convinced there are just some things that I will never be able to make sense of, be at peace with, or understand the meaning of, until I’m in my Heavenly Home with Jesus! That is why God is God, and I am not!

I don’t know about you, but I love to read a good book! One that has you riveted from the start. You’re not just reading the pages, you are enraptured in the story. You imagine yourself as one of the leading characters, and as each chapter comes to an end you think you know how the story is going to end, until . . . The plot thickens, the circumstances twist, and everything you thought you knew about what would happen changes. That’s when you just can’t put the book down, because you NEED to figure out how it’s going to end so you can sleep at night. We like happy endings, endings that agree with our sense of justice. We like endings that make sense, solve all our curiosities, and end up neatly wrapped with a card that says “And they all lived happily ever after”. Unfortunately life isn’t like that, but maybe more importantly where did we get the idea that it should be?

The Bible is made up of 66 separate books, written by at least 40 different authors, and written over a span of 1,500 years on three different continents. It is not a book of fairy tales, good stories, or moral teachings that are outdated, and not applicable to today’s world. The Holy Bible is the inerrant word of the Creator of the Universe, and all that is in it. It records history from the time God created the universe, man in His own image, the fall of mankind, the salvation of man from our sins through the death of His Son Jesus, and the prophecies of what is to come when Jesus comes back to take us home to Heaven. It covers incest, adultery, rape, homosexuality, bribery, betrayal, hatred, prejudice, racism, lying, politics, religion, hypocrites, and murder just to name a few. It is the best guide to live your life by, and it is the greatest love story of your soul that you will ever read. However, nowhere in the entire Bible does it say: bad things only happen to bad people (Matthew 5:45), or bad people don’t get ahead or prosper (Psalm 37:7), or you will never lose a child to death (2Samuel 12:18 & 2 Samuel 18:33), or if you’re faithful your spouse will always be faithful to you (Hosea 3:1). Nope! The Bible not only doesn’t say everything will work out well for us while we are here on earth, but it shares many historical events where it didn’t work out for good, and quotes Jesus’ actual words telling us not to expect it to. “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Now, I’m not trying to be a “Debbie Downer”, by telling you everything won’t work out how you think it should, how you want it too, or prayed and believed it would. The Bible could not be the greatest book of Faith, Hope, and Love, IF it were based on false hope. False hope is not hope, it’s cruelty! No one could have believed God more for a complete, and miraculous healing of my husband than I did. Today would have been his 58th birthday (the 3rd he’s celebrated in Heaven). But . . . Nothing could have given me more hope, and comfort when I read how Jesus wept when his best friend died, that He promised me, (and I literally felt) He would be close to the brokenhearted, and that Joe’s death was only final here on earth, but that I would see him healthy, and whole again, because he’s alive in Heaven! My friends I’m sorry if someone led you to believe the lie that if you pray enough, do enough good deeds, and believe enough, etc. that things will always work out for your good here on earth. If you believe that lie, then you are always going to doubt God’s love for you when things don’t work out in your favor. I think Hebrews 11:13 says it best “All these people (Christ followers – people who went to church, did good, prayed, and believed) were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” What. . . wait a minute! I thought every Promise God makes is true?! It is, but this is where the confusion lies, and Satan the “Father of lies”, is all too glad to capitalize on that confusion. God promises in Romans 8:28 “ALL things work together for good to them that love God”, He never promised that they would work for good here on earth, while we are alive to see it, or that we would even understand it while we are here on earth. Why? This is not our home, this is not the final chapter of our story.

The bottom line is this: The plot may have thickened, the circumstances look bleak, evil seems to be winning, and you have no idea how anything good will work out of this situation. I get it, I really do! Remember this. . . YOUR STORY IS NOT OVER YET! The more intimately you know the Author of your story, the more you can trust, hope, and believe even when it looks like you are losing. If you have ever cheated, and jumped to the last chapter of a story to see how it ends, then you understand no matter how bleak things may seem at the moment, you don’t have to fret, because you know how it ends!

Spoiler Alert: YOU WIN IN THE END, AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOW MUCH YOU PRAY, WORK, OR BELIEVE. You win, because Christ paid the price for all of your sins when He died in what should have been your death on the cross. You win, because Christ conquered the power of death, the penalty you deserved, when He rose from the grave. You win, because Christ guaranteed earth is not your home, this life is not all there is, and ALL things will work out for your good when He ascended into Heaven to prepare a place for you in His Father’s house. No matter what things look like in your life right now, regardless of the pain you are presently in, and you can’t see how any good could come of your current situation. . . . Don’t Fret. You are not home yet!