Sunday: March 16, 2014

This one is a re-posting of a devotion I wrote over a year ago. I was planning on doing Revelation 21 today, but as I was checking off all the boxes on the plan I realized that I’d already done it. I want to do it again today, though, so as not to skip over a major chapter as we’re finishing Revelation. It’s not a long one, but Revelation 21 is a powerful chapter worth re-reading. For today, we’ll re-read it. Tomorrow will kick off the final week of Through in 2! If you’ve been following along, thank you! In just over 2 years you’ve read and thought and prayed your way through the entire Bible (almost). 🙂

READ: Revelation 21

THINK: I have been overwhelmed lately with the brokenness of the world. The shooting at Sandy Hook. The 40^th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. And the 53 million lives that were never given a chance. The devastation wreaked by Hurricane Sandy. The fact that there are now more slaves in the world than there have ever been in human history. And so many of them are little girls. The innocent people whose deaths are treated as collateral damage by terrorists around the globe. And also by those using drones to hunt terrorists. The number of my friends who are far from God. Family members too. The billion people on a food-rich planet who are starving and malnourished.

There really aren’t words that can adequately express the depth of the darkness or the depth of the emotion that  it evokes deep within us. When our hearts are lined up with God’s we really can’t help but be shattered by all of it. And that is why I love Revelation 21. It is possibly the greatest message of hope in recorded history! I don’t have all the answers as to how, exactly and precisely, the end of the world and Christ’s return are going to happen (and I openly admit that I don’t think those details are anywhere close to the big idea of the book of Revelation). The big idea is this: Jesus is coming back and God is making all things new! Behold, He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making all things new…It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.”

Thank God for hope. Thank God for not leaving us in our brokenness, for not abandoning us in this mess that we’ve made. Thank God for the outrageous incredible picture of the future in Revelation 21. Thank God for the fact that he takes the shattered things and the shattered people and he makes ALL THINGS NEW!

PRAY: Take 5 minutes and listen to this awesome, hope-filled song. While you listen, let your heart be both broken for your world and yet, at the same time, filled with hope because of the promises of God. Maybe read Revelation 21 again. Maybe just use the time to praise God and ask how and where he wants to use you as an agent of renewal in your world. Close your prayer time by reflecting and confessing your own brokenness and saying, “Thank you God for making all things new!”