10062024 The Earth Groans

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of the God of hope. In a world that is largely without hope, truly all our hope is found in Him.

For the past week, much of the attention of the USA has been on the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene in our southeastern states. Over 230 people have been found dead so far. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and thousands damaged. Many roads and bridges have been horribly smashed, leaving communities and regions cut off. Some of the recovery will take years. I am aware that this is not the only such devastation in the world. In other places, there are also tropical storms, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, snowstorms, and other natural disasters.

I am reminded of Romans 8:22. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” God made a wonderful creation, and it still retains a great deal of His splendor. Since the fall, however, this world has been broken. The entrance of sin changed everything, and not for the better! The heaviness and weightiness of the sin and brokenness is felt even by the physical earth, which waits for the redemption that only God can bring.

There is a day coming when God will deliver this world. When God is established on the throne, what a difference that will make! In that day, even the earth itself will know the difference. Psalm 96 tells of that great day, saying, “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth” (vs. 11-13).

Like the broken earth, we broken people wait for such a day. “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). Sometimes the weight of this world system, all its wickedness, and the effect that it has on us and on people we love seems too much to bear. We do groan under such oppression, and we cry out, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

Until then, God is the one who upholds us. The gospel is our hope, and it is the hope of the world for all who will receive it. Knowing God and being rightly related to Him is all that can sustain us. So we go on day by day, empowered by divine strength, motivated by the divine mission, and “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Keep your eyes up! And remain faithful until that day.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA