Great Expectation

"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." I was a young teenager when I first heard this and I was excited to discover what this kind of life would look like. Many years have passed and I still believe that God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life but now I have a deeper understanding of what that means. When I was young I thought it meant a life without pain or suffering.

What I now understand is that the heavenly Father has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. He rescued me from the domain of darkness, and transferred me to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Through His Son, Jesus, I have redemption, the forgiveness of my sins. Surely, this is a more wonderful plan than my mind could have ever comprehended. But there is something more, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God are at war and now I am part of the conflict.

When the Lord sent Ananias to Paul to tell him about the wonderful plan He had for Paul's life, there was something more to the message. Ananias was to also show Paul how much he must suffer for God's name sake. To be told you were going to suffer could cause anxiety. However, when Paul's eyes were opened so that he could see his part in God's kingdom he was also filled with the Holy Spirit.

Often, fear and anxiety accompany suffering and the unknown. However, Paul was given a cosmic framework in which to live, think and work. He no longer belonged to the night or darkness. He was now a son of light and a son of the day. As Selwyn Hughes puts, he was no longer an "orphan of the universe." He had become part of the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus was finishing His ministry here on earth He told His followers that in this world they would have tribulation. Suffering is not alien to someone who is following Jesus. He never said we would have peace in this world. He said we would have peace in Him. The war between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God has already been won. Jesus overcame the world. So what is this wonderful plan God has for me? I have not only been transferred out of darkness into light but I have, like Paul, been filled with the Spirit of God to speak to a hurting world words of life, words of hope, the message of the Kingdom.