Tuning Into Him...

Revelation 9:1-21 (Click on reference to read text)

This passage is heavy. Can you imagine the headlines during this time period? I know they would not say, "Attention all Believers: You are currently living in Revelations 9. Take heart, God is in control!" This sounds silly, but it is true. Prophecy coming to pass will never be portrayed with a Biblical World View in the media. This is why it is important to train our eyes and ears to recognize the hand of God in every situation, world-wide or personal.

Through the limits he places on His judgement, believers can read this chapter and see the overwhelming gracious hand of God. Instead of seeing the agony of allowing people to be tortured for five months, we see the mercy of God in giving them more time to repent! Instead of looking at the 1/3 of mankind that is killed, we see the grace in God allowing 2/3 of mankind to survive even in their extreme rebellion! No matter how bad it gets on Earth, we know that is nothing compared to the agony and eternity of Hell.

In order to run the race marked out for us as believers, we must believe and live by the truth that God is gracious and good no matter what the circumstances around us look like. That one truth of who God is must permeate our belief system so deeply that nothing we see, hear, or feel could change it. Through this chapter in Revelation, we begin to understand that it is not "how can a loving God allow people to suffer," but "how long-suffering and loving God is that He will go to extreme measures to cause people to turn to Him!"

God will take extreme measures in our life as well. As Christians, we too can be rebellious within individual circumstances. If we take a close look at our life during our own times of judgement, we can see the grace and mercy of God within those situations. Often times, upon close examinations, we discover that we have placed ourself in a bad situation that will bring us ruin or have allowed habits to form in our life that will ultimately hurt ourselves or those around us that we love. God loves us too much to leave us! He cares more about eternity than our present comfort, and will go to extreme measures, if need be, to bring us back to Him! Are there any areas in your life that you need to repent of? How will you respond: like the men in vs. 6 will you long for the end/death of the circumstance or will you return to the Lord?

Take a close look at your circumstances. Train your eyes to look for and see the hand of God in your life. Just as we can see the ultimate control and sovereignty of God through every verse of Revelation 9, he is sovereign and in control of your life now. It is only when we practice and train our eyes to see the movements of His hands, will we recognize His character no matter how the circumstances look around us. He is in control. He is sovereign. He is gracious and He is good.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things... put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Phil 4:8-9