A couple of days ago I was wrapping gifts for the grandkids (something CJ always did, so fortunately they are kids and not too concerned with how pretty the wrapping job is!) I took a break and sat down at her study desk upstairs. I glanced through a women’s Bible study she had been working on up until the last 2-3 weeks of her life, when her confusion got worse due to liver failure, and she was no longer able to do anything with her hands or a clear mind. Out of the book fell 2 cards marked “My Prayer Strategy”. The last prayer she ever wrote was one was for her kids & grandkids, which I will share with them privately. The other card said this: “Oh Lord, as I exit your Earthly Domain, I will not forget the discipline of a thankful heart. It is the first step to TRUE worship: “Enter His gates with a thankful heart and enter His courts with Praise!” Help me, Lord, as I walk through this pathway of worship, to understand the procedure of coming into your presence.”

Now, please don’t misunderstand what she was praying for! She was NOT seeking some mystical path to get into Heaven. CJ knew, as any Christian should, that the ONLY path to Heaven is through Jesus, by believing he is the Son of God, that he died and rose again, and that as we trust Him with our lives he will save us from sin and resurrect us from death to a new and amazing life with him forever. And that’s where she is now, because she believed that! 

Anybody who knew CJ well knew that intimate worship was central to whom she was, and what made her the person she grew to become. She learned that worship is about God, not us; and once we rightly understand that God is God and we are not, then we can recognize there is a biblical path to enter into God’s presence correctly.  Why is it so important to get into the presence of God? Because that is what we are missing in this sinful, dark, and broken world! We were created to live WITH GOD is this world, but sin separates us from Him. CJ understood that the closer we get to God and experience His presence in our daily lives, the more peace and true fulfillment we will experience. And NOW, free from the curse of sin and her decaying, cancer-riddled body, she is experiencing true peace, joy, and just plain fun with Jesus himself!

 For all of us still here, there is unanimous consent that 2020 was a horrible year! Whether you lost a loved one as I did, or had other losses and trials in your life, we all seem to focus on COVID as the prime evil of 2020. And it was a horrible virus, killing many and causing massive destruction not only physically, but emotionally, spiritually, and materially as well. And with the vaccines coming out, we all have great hope. But as Christians we should understand, even though 2021 will hopefully be better than 2020, we still live in a world under the power of evil and sin, and that will not change until Jesus returns to destroy Satan and evil and restore the world to what it was meant to be! As awful as COVID is, thankfully less than 1% of the world will actually die from it. On the other hand, we are all under the curse of sin, and 100% of us will die of that!

Paul says in Romans 8:18-21:
¹⁸  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹  that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Pastor Timothy Keller, in his book “Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering”, reminds us that this present world is broken and is NOT the world we desire deep in our hearts! He says “Human beings were not created to experience death, pain, grief, disappointment, ruptured relationships, disease, and natural disasters. The world we were made to live in was not supposed to be like that! A frustrated world is a broken world, in which things do not function as they should, and that is why there is evil and suffering.”

Christians who understand the story of God’s plan in the Bible know two main truths:

1) This present world is a hot mess, under the power of sin, and no human solution or government is going to change that. And even though we love much of life here and find joy and fulfillment at times, we all know something isn’t right, something is missing!

2) God offers us a new future, a new hope, when Jesus returns, destroys evil, and re-creates a new heaven and earth the way it was originally meant to be. In this new world, there will be no more sin, and we will again dwell WITH GOD all the time, every day!

OK, I think we can all agree, whether you’re a Christian or not, that this present world is messed up and you would like to live in a better world! Let me suggest three areas to focus on as you enter into 2021. This doesn’t guarantee you won’t struggle, suffer, or even die in 2021. But it will help you see God’s bigger picture, recognize that He is with you and will strengthen you no matter what you face, and realize that no matter what happens, there is a great new world coming for believers in Jesus, and nothing can take that away from us!

1) Ask God to help you see your life through His eyes, every day of the year!

 In Ephesians 1:17-18 (ESV), Paul offers a beautiful prayer for all of us, saying…
¹⁷  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, ¹⁸  having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

– “having the eyes of your heart enlightened” means that God would focus your desires of heart and mind on what he has for you, which is far better than what you may think you want or need! Ask God to help you see your life and others the way Jesus sees them, and you will see hope and good even in the worst circumstances of life. CJ and I experienced this mindset time and time again in her 18 month battle with cancer, and it made life much more bearable.

2) Seek and look for God’s presence in your life every moment of every day!

Even though sin separates us from God, he promised us that when we trust in Jesus with our life, his Holy Spirit will come and dwell within us! Whatever you are doing each day, consciously ask God to help you and guide you and strengthen you. One of the names of the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and his presence has greatly brought comfort to me in these past months, even though it’s still difficult.

3) Live each day with a Kingdom attitude of joy and thankfulness!

Going back to CJ’s last written prayer for herself, I’m amazed and so proud of her that her goal was to have the proper attitude as she knew she was leaving this world and going home to her Father’s presence! I remember that last 2 weeks watching her sit quietly on the sofa, her hands folded in prayer, quietly asking God to take her home. She had learned through practice to approach God with thankfulness for all that God had done and promised to do for us in the future, which naturally leads to praising him for his power to help us overcome even death itself!  

It’s easy and natural to succumb to having a “pity party” for yourself when circumstances are difficult. CJ and I both had our share of them, and I still do from time to time. But the Bible teaches us to keep our hearts and minds focused on Jesus and what he has done for us, and that moves us away from pity to thankfulness and even rejoicing, because we know God is always with us! Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4: 4-7,
⁴  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This afternoon, a friend sent me and others a wonderful quote by Christian author and theologian Henri Nouwen called “JOY” :

Joy does not come from positive predictions about the state of the world.

It does not depend on the ups and downs of the circumstances of our lives.

Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that,

while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness,

God has overcome the world.

Jesus says it loudly and clearly:  ‘In the world you will have troubles,

but rejoice, I have overcome the world.’

The surprise is not that, unexpectedly, things turn out better than expected.

No, the real surprise is that God’s light is more real than all the darkness,

that God’s truth is more powerful than all  human lies,

that God’s love is stronger than death.

I pray for all of us that 2021 will be a wonderful year in many ways! But most of all, I pray you will seek God’s intimate, daily presence, and that His presence will bring you unspeakable joy, even in the midst of trials and difficulties. And may that joy lead you to an attitude of humility, thankfulness, and unending praise for God and his great love for you.

God bless you all! Have a wonderful Christmas, blessed New Year, and never forget that God loves you more than will ever know!