When I read the road sign announcing “Construction for the next 50 miles,” I groaned. Really? Construction had already been going on for the past three years and now it would be for the foreseeable future—up to three more years! Every day since, as I drive this stretch of pavement under repair, I wonder if it will ever be finished. Deep down I know it will be, yet when I’m stopped in painfully slow traffic, it’s hard to believe the interstate will ever be free of orange barrels and single lanes.
I often feel the same way about the world and myself: It seems like never-ending construction. Sometimes I think, Will everything really be made “new” one day as Jesus has promised? (Revelation 21:5). If I were to live by sight instead of by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), it would appear that the earth and my soul and everything else would be forever needing repairs. It doesn’t seem as if the consequences of Adam and Eve’s fall will ever be healed.
In Isaiah 43, the Lord declared to ancient Israel that He was doing a new thing. In verse 19, He said, “See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?” Although some days I do, other days I don’t perceive it at all. I need God to give me the eyes to see and ears to hear the truth about reality and that—just as with Israel—He can do new things in and through me today.
God is making all things new—me, you, the earth, and everything else that exists—regardless of whether or not I perceive it. One day, we’ll look back and realize that He was true to His word, despite our perceptions that things would remain the same forever.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: John 1:1-18
More:
Meditate on Romans 3:4 and consider why you can trust God to fulfill His promises.
Next:
Think about a time you doubted God would work everything out for good, but then saw how He did. What would you like to see changed in the world? How does it encourage you to know God will one day make all things right?
ng on June 5, 2017 at 4:44 am
Recently I have been so filled with doubts. I’m living in South Africa where the crime rate is so high. Every traffic light has so many beggars. New born babies are being flushed down the toilets or thrown into the trash. What was the purpose of those babies even being born and yet there are couples who desperately want kids and can provide for these kids but unable to have kids. Children as young as 2 and 3 years old are being raped???? Who is there to protect them??? Women are being raped everyday??? How am I suppose to be full of hope???
Marlena Graves on June 5, 2017 at 7:39 am
ng – I mourn with you and I too have had these questions and do on occasion. And sometimes God asks me, what are you doing to overcome evil with good where you are (Romans 12). All to say, I hear you.
don777 on June 5, 2017 at 8:33 am
This is a fallen world, Not just South Africa. The ONLY HOPE any of us have is Jesus. All we can do is pray, reach out, and proclaim Jesus to all those in hopeless situations. That would be all of us. There is evil all over the world ever sense the fall. There is stuff we don’t understand why. But I know this; Jesus Saves. We proclaim HOPE to the hopeless. We can dwell on why’s but that will just bring us down and hinder us on proclaiming the Hope. The why’s are God’s. I proclaim what I do know & that is Jesus is the ONLY HOPE. When things are dark the light will shine brighter. +>i
Gary Shultz on June 5, 2017 at 6:09 am
Hi Marlena: I am somewhat stunned by Ng’s comments, but we each live the lives where we find ourselves. We must also know “everything” may not be resolved in our life time or in this time span, but to be sure God will make all things right. God’s finish and purpose does not work on our time clock; however, His love and care does. Even if we had a bucket full of wishes we could not repair all evils in the world, so we let God changes us, an “Enoch” life in a wicked age. That’s something I can get my “teeth” into, God gives us what we need now for what He has asked us to be or do. There will be an age where Jesus has total rule and evil will still erupt when given the opportunity. If you see evil, you should know God is true He predicted it. Will it also give us the reason that the good He has predicted will come too? If I, as some, believe that these are the last days, the surprise should not be evil surging, but God will have the glory. Thanks Marlena
ng on June 5, 2017 at 9:08 am
Another child killed: eyes gouged out, dumped on field
Western Cape | 5 June 2017, 08:37am
Siyavuya Mzantsi
Minentle’s body was found three days after police arrested a 56-year-old man in connection with the discovery of what was believed to be human remains of a female among reeds in an open field in TR-Section, Khayelitsha, on Thursday.
On May 13, three-year-old Courtney Pieters was found in a shallow grave after she went missing on May 4 in Elsies River, three days after the body of four-year-old Iyapha Yamile was found stuffed in a plastic bag on May 1 in Khayelitsha.
Five days later, 25-year-old Ntuthuzelo Mayekiso was arrested for the murder of fourteen-month-old Lindokuhle Kota in Khayelitsha.
On Sunday, as the Cape Times interviewed grandmother Bomela about missing Minentle, she received word of the discovery of the body and broke down.
Earlier, still hopeful her grandchild would be found alive, she had detailed how the family and community had searched for Minentle.
Neighbours discover PE mother, toddler brutally beaten
#DontLookAway | 5 June 2017, 12:24pm
Raahil Sain
Port Elizabeth – Police in Port Elizabeth are investigating a case of attempted murder after a mother and her daughter were found brutally beaten in their home in the city, Eastern Cape police said on Sunday.
Provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Marinda Mills said a 47-year-old woman and her three-year-old daughter were found battered in their home in Chatty over the weekend.
Nine dead after ATM shoot-out west of Durban
Kwa-Zulu Natal | 5 June 2017, 10:35am
SE-ANNE RALL
UPDATE
Durban – Nine people, including a police officer, were killed after a gun battle with a gang of ATM robbers in Hammersdale, west of Durban on Sunday night.
It is alleged that police officers were informed of a plot to bomb an ATM in the area and responded. Members of the police’s elite National Intervention Unit and K9 Unit were called to assist local officers.
AND NOW FOR OTHER NEWS: Trump vows to do whatever is necessary to protect US
2017-06-05 12:27
Some how I don’t think its like that around the world.
ng on June 5, 2017 at 9:17 am
Thanks Marlena for understanding that at some point we all have questions
Monica Brands on June 5, 2017 at 9:55 am
Hi Marlena, Thanks for your authenticity in voicing this tension we all feel. Hope can sometimes seem a fragile thing when evil feels overwhelming, as ng’s heartbreaking experiences make so clear. I’m grateful that in a world that sometimes feels more like the cross than the resurrection, Christ’s Spirit carries all our wounds into new life, even when we cannot bear it on our own.
street on June 5, 2017 at 3:23 pm
dear ng we all get pushed up against the wall when we witness and are aware of the suffering of the innocent. in the book of Job we are told of a righteous man suffering through no fault of his own. his suffering started with God, Who also is innocent and suffers along side with those He loves. a suffering so great, the cross was the only way to end it. we still live in mortal flesh, under the sentence of death, but are given new life in Christ, eternal life. we are hidden in Christ. there will come a day when we will be able to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. that day is not here yet. rest in the Lord Who has a plan and is absolutely Souvenir over creation. we have a Great Hope in Christ because He lives, raised from death on a cross on our behalf, and has been exalted to the right hand of God. He is coming back. will He find faith on the earth? a hope worth living for and worth dying. a hope of peace with God in Christ Jesus. these evil acts can never bring peace or hope, only repentance and new birth.