Deep Certainty

Do you ever have one of those days? When the future seems so uncertain and life seems so messy? If you are like me, you've had more days like that than you can count. Today was kind of like one of those days. As I was praying and listening to music this afternoon, one of the songs that came on is titled "A Mighty Fortress" by Nathan and Christy Nockels. The lyrics are:

Our God is, a consuming fire, 
A burning holy Flame, with glory and freedom
Our God is, the only righteous judge,
Ruling over us with kindness and wisdom

We will keep our eyes on You
We will keep our eyes on You

A mighty fortress is our God
A sacred refuge is Your Name
Your Kingdom is unshakable
With You forever we will reign

Our God is, jealous for His own
None could comprehend, His love and His mercy
Our God is exalted on His throne
High above the heavens
Forever He’s worthy...

We will keep our eyes on You
We will keep our eyes on You

We will keep our eyes on You
We will keep our eyes on You
So we can set our hearts on You
Lord we will set our hearts on You!

I was reminded as I listened to the song and talked to the Lord that His Kingdom is unshakable. That no matter what happens in this life, He is on the throne and He is with me. My prayer was that I would keep my eyes on Him and set my heart on Him because He never changes. 

Then I went to the evening service at my church and my pastor spoke about 1 John 5:11-20. John writes in this letter that if we have heard the Truth, believed it, are living like a Christ follower, and know that His Kingdom is continuing to come to us as we live (really live), than we can have a deep certainty about the future and hope for what is to come.  "When we know where we are headed and what our purpose is, we can face the future with confidence." (Pastor Bryan)

1 John 5:19 says, "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one."  It is true that God never promised us that things would be easy in this life, that we would not face hardships, messiness, and uncertainty or that our relationships and families would be perfect.  We are told in Scripture that the evil one is the prince of this world right now. 

But there is hope! 1 John 5:20 says, "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true- even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."   Wow, I love this verse. When we know that we can know the One who is true, we can have confidence moving forward...that our lives have meaning and purpose and that no matter what difficulty we encounter or uncertainty about the future, we have a firm foundation on which to stand. A Solid Rock. A Mighty Fortress to run to when the world is seemingly closing in. 

For those of us in relationship with Christ, we can have deep certainty of eternal life because those of us who have the Son have life (1 John 5:12). Verse 13 of Chapter 5 says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." If we believe in the name of Christ, we already have eternal life. It is not something we will one day possess...we have it now!  Let us keep our eyes on Him, the author and perfecter of our faith. Let us set our hearts on Him.