Yesterday at Church our Pastor encouraged us to come to God and tell Him what hurts – whether the awful reality of children being murdered in their own schoolroom, which is incomprehensible, or hurts from our own pasts that we still grapple with. Martha did. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”John 11:21. So in prayer this morning I brought to Him the pain still in my heart at what those children must have felt. Then, as always, my thoughts touched on all the other pain throughout all time and the resistance to change that could help. The change in our hearts. And once again the enormity of the problem overwhelmed.

His answer to me, so brief, was, I give life. I sat there quietly for some time before He added Turn to me.

Yesterday reading in Hebrews 12:25-29: See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” (Haggai 2:6) The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Deuteronomy 4:24).

What can be shaken? What needs to be shaken? Is there a list long enough? If you let your mind think for even a few minutes of everything that is wrong in this broken world…and realizing we may all share the same list but we will have different solutions…it doesn’t take long to realize the solutions we come up with will not solve the multitude of problems we face today. No one political party or leader, no one religion, no one country will be able to solve our problems.

I give life…turn to Me. Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21.

I realized this morning in prayer that the word hope felt feeble to me because it was hope I could see and again, I see from eyes living in a broken world that can be shaken. I’m shaken with images of war, news of children murdered in schoolrooms, homelessness, terrorism, poverty, intolerance, hate. As our Pastor said this morning our world is broken and it won’t be perfect until Jesus returns. I have His promise above that great Shepherd of the sheep will equip you with everything good for doing his will and work in us what is pleasing to him…

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” (Isaiah 65:17) for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death (Isaiah 25:8) or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:1-4.

Think of all the things today that bring tears…death, mourning, crying, pain…the old order of things that will be shaken. They desperately need to be shaken and we desperately need someone to hold onto. I give life…turn to me. God is the only one who can give life and hope that isn’t feeble but glorious and beautiful. Turn to Him and pour out your heart when you are angry, hurt, confused, weary and He will give you peace and strength to see past the sorrow to His promises. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” John 14:6.

I don’t know about you but it does my heart good to think of when Jesus returns and will be with us and we will be with Him in a new heaven and a new earth and no more sorrow but joy. What a beautiful word…joy.