“In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house and will water the valley of acacias. Joel 3:18
Another end-times verse, talking in pictorial terms about how the land will be plentiful again when God makes His home here once more. The main point is Godly plenty, that the land will produce the best of things because God is here, because everywhere He lives is a place that is blessed.
Though the verse doesn’t specifically talk about it, think about your life. Think about your life with God in it. Sure, your life may not be rosy. In fact, here on the Third Rock, life can be really tough, really challenging. Just think what it would be like without hope.
Just think how tough life could be without the God who provides new wine, flowing plenty, and constant refreshment. If someone doesn’t believe in Jesus, God provides for them anyway. They wake up each day with a fresh, new opportunity to make of it what they will. Air, water, food, shelter, other people, vocation: God provides so they don’t have to worry about it.
Yet some do, living without hope, without including themselves into the hope-promise of eternity. As they say in my church, eternity matters most, and it matters both now and forever. At the end of life, there’s eternity with Jesus, knowing the full love, peace, and adventure that will be eternity spent in communion with Him, living in full worship of Him while being fulfilled in every way by Him.
Here and now, it might matter even more. In heaven, nobody will try to take it away from you, try to steer you wrong. Here, however, the cares of the world, the temptations of sin, the machinations of the evil one all work against us, conniving 24/7 to try to pull us away from the God who provides, who will provide a land of pure refreshment to us when He again walks in His garden; when the Lord returns to Zion. Yes, we need hope now.
Here and now, if you reject Jesus, you’re just existing. You aren’t really living a life of true meaning. Even if you’re living a moral, “good” life, you’re simply waiting for damnation for there is no real good in this world without Christ. You’re simply going through the motions and will find yourself standing outside the land of God’s plenty, looking in and knowing that time ran out.
There’s a better way.
How about now, instead of living outside the hope of God, you jump in feet-first and put your faith in Christ? How about letting Him include you in the eternity He provides today, when you can start living more peacefully right now?
For more reading: Exodus 3:8, Isaiah 30:25, Amos 9:13, Revelation 22:1-2, Joel 3:19
Lord Jesus, I believe in You only
Practical Proverbs 