Read
“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.”
(Revelation 1: 3)
Think
Honestly I find this a tough chapter to read – and it’s one of the examples of how helpful it is to read this book as a whole. The story doesn’t end here! What it does make me think is that – for now – there’s serious suffering taking place on the earth. Which, looking around, appears to have been true throughout human history ever since the fall.
Yet what this chapter also reminds me is that there’s a limit to all suffering – a limit to what God allows his own people to undergo, and an ultimate limit to suffering. If ‘one woe is past and two more are yet to come’ – then it follows that there will one day be a time when all woes are finished with. That’s the promise of the bible and of Revelation!
Pray
‘Father, praise you that you are the only hope of restoration, of eternal life, of freedom from suffering and all the death that sin has brought into the world. Give us your compassion for those who are dying without you, to show them your love and kindness, to share the good news of your son with them.
Help us to live with the sure and certain hope that suffering will not last forever – that there is a day coming when all woes will be past.
Amen’
