I have always been someone who didn’t mind spoilers. Especially those that were about the end. It may be why I flourish in learning history, I know the ending but It doesn’t mean I don’t want to know how we got there. I like having a good plot twist and surprise but I’m actually more likely to read, study, or watch if I knew what was going to happen in the end. This may be why I have always preferred romantic comedies, they are cheesy, light hearted and predictable. But they are always going to end with the people you want to be together, together. With a few jokes and heart felt moments along the way. You won’t spoil my enjoyment by having me know how it turns out.
This is how I like to live my life, light hearted, joking and heartfelt. But! Life doesn’t tell you the end of your story. You get to live a life hoping and praying that whatever decision you’ve made won’t screw up your entire life. You get to hope and pray that the decisions that screw up your life don’t screw up other people’s lives. You get to hope and pray that somehow your domino effect doesn’t end the entire human race. Now yes, I realize most of us aren’t having thoughts THAT far past the situation (at the time). But I do think that we generally are choosing what we hope will be best for us. laying the groundwork to be best for our families, our neighbors, and future generations. And I’m pretty sure that’s where all my anxieties used to stem from. I always said I had a fear of failure and of the unknown, but I don’t really have those anymore. Because well, I’ve read the end.
This year in the middle of a pandemic, I felt extremely lead to read the book of Revelation. I felt God telling me to do this as much as I saw signs of the devil not wanting me to. (Seriously, in the span of a week, my oven caught fire, the smoke detectors were going off uncontrollably days later, the fridge was rattling uncontrollably, my phone went STRAIGHT black screen, a waterline in the AC busted causing leaking in our ceiling). I had always been afraid of reading revelation, I was so scared to see what would be happening to the earth, to its inhabitants. It still breaks my heart to know that in the face of God people will choose evil. They will deny him and choose to be evil. So I put off reading Revelation for a month. And when I began reading it, I could hardly stop. Do you know what the first page of Revelation says? “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near”. BLESSED, the devil was literally trying to stop me from being blessed! While God pulled me toward it.
Blessed, even, are you for reading this blog post. For I have read and am sharing but this is such a small part of a very important book in the Bible. I encourage you–read it and you shall be blessed, your fears eased, for you will NOT be left behind, if you accept Him now. God wanted me to read revelation–the book that was a fear of mine–for hope, to remove my fears of the book, AND the end times.
I had a fear of being left behind when the Christians are pulled out because I knew I wasn’t living for God. I believed, I still had faith, but I was scared my faith wouldn’t be enough to have me remembered on that day. I’m not saying that God would turn me away, I don’t really know if He would do that because Jesus already paid my price. But revelation does say he doesn’t like lukewarm Christians and he warns to have your joy the same as the day you gave your life to Him. He even threatens to put out the lamp of one of the churches, so BE ON FIRE FOR GOD. He also says He will deny the ones who denied Him, avoid the fear that God will turn you away, or turn out your light. And seek FIRST the kingdom. I am choosing the path that will obliterate that fear all together. I am living for Him.
~I can’t believe I didn’t put it together sooner, I like knowing the end and God told me to read the end. And in the end, Jesus Wins. I don’t have to have those fears anymore, because He is with me, I am with Him and we can not be defeated. Like the end of a Rom Com, the people you want together—believers and Jesus— are.~
What I learned in 2020, or at least in my 26 years of life, is that you cannot control what happens. Whatever is going to happen, will. What you can control is how you react to it. What you do and say is critical to our future.
The Wordy Over Thinker 