The 13th blessing: confidence
Growing old may not be for wimps, but it happens. Dying we shall die was the edict of Eden, but our forever needs not be a dead one. The testimony of God is that through Jesus we have eternal life. So many of the verses leading up to this 13th one have pointed this out. Is this not an excellent present under God’s Christmas tree? Sure we look around us easily observing what age does to the human body. Its decline can be ignored only so long. Then we must face the music.
John says, “Jesus is God’s gift to us. He came, he conquered, he returned to heaven to prepare a place for us. He has long ago set his stage for a glorious return. Even now he has reestablished his relationship with us.” This is background information all unpacked in the writings of our Bible and enhanced by God’s direct witness to us.
“Take it, learn from it, know from it that you have eternal life.” That is much of what John seeks to teach here. Aging may be a trial, but the moans of a death march need not be its soundtrack. We need to lift up our eyes unto heaven, accept God’s explanation for how things got this way and learn to live now in a faithful, godly-style of eternity.
From aging to eternity
Can we learn to gaze-shift? Satan played his cards with Eve. God did so with Jesus and holds out inkling after inkling, experience after experience, witness after testifying witness. The dangles to faith that God places here and there about our trials are strong to their task.
The same winds which blow the waves move the chimes of God’s help.
We will walk firm when we shift our stare from the waves to the wind chimes of God’s wonder. God’s music is no death march, but a rising from the ashes to life forever.
Does this work?
The 14th verse is for that. John says, “My confidence is so great that God himself hears me when I talk to him.” Do not forget the Pagan culture from which most of John’s audience was drawn. Ritual upon ritual was encoiled upon religious experience. If you want a deity to hear your request the approach must be crafted, perfected, meticulously assembled, and then maybe the god will at least hear.
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