ASSURANCE FOR THE FUTURE

SCRIPTURAL PORTION FROM THE BIBLE : Job 5:19

I was going through some old forgotten books and papers of bygone years, priceless treasures of memories of the lives my grandparents and their children, shared together. A lovely pink card caught my attention and as I opened it, a feeling of ecstasy tingled through me – it was a card that a loving father sent to his daughter far away, across the seas for her first birthday – to me. A single line quote summed up his dreams and wishes for his little girl. “Past mercies are guarantees for the future” - C. H. Spurgeon.

In due time, I moved out from my home, and had to struggle to pull a life together along with studies. Many a times, the springs of faith went dry and the steps faltered. The inner eyes constantly looked above for solace. On a day, when every wistful thought failed human optimism, this verse in Job, came as the refreshing rivulet of water to the parched thirsty soul, as I related it to my Dad’s one liner.

Job was an extraordinarily righteous man, and had found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He is portrayed as one with humility and patience and as a soul who constantly interceded before the throne for himself and those around him. Yet, he had to undergo a painful period of loss, bereavement and illness in his life and during this dreadful period of pain, Job faintly succumbed to impatience as he saw a fading ray of hope. Rattled with the distressed remarks of Job, his friend Eliphaz the Temanite, who had come to comfort him, reminds Job that the God, who afflicts, is also the compassionate one.

Undisputable as it is, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1), yet it is the deepest human desire that our life should be at ease. When panic strikes, we question, and often fail to remember that our Lord has never promised us a de-tour, but only sufficient grace en-route the journey. A Christian, can undoubtedly testify of numerous occasions of the providence of God.

The Christian soul, with rich experiences past, succumbs to a state of anxiousness and discouragement when the winds of trials blows its way and feels that the existing problem is far greater than the ones that it has confronted earlier. We tend to forget all the past mercies and grow anxious about our present and future.

Lesson reinforcement is a methodology used in schools to help students retain the lessons in their long term memory. So is past experiences in the life’s school of learning and it is in no ways different in God’s school. If God has helped us in “six troubles”, then it is for sure that God will make a way for the seventh trouble too. Each new wave of trouble that dashes against our life is to reinforce the saving mercies of our Lord again. Not only is our past deliverances a surety for future mercies, but it is also God’s way of enriching our spirits to reinforce this faith in our fellow believers too. We can only give if we have received. God can use us as vessels of comfort only, if we have experienced divine comfort from above.

So, if the future looks bleak and the clouds are grey, contemplate of the many times that God’s providence was revealed. If He was strong and merciful to help you get through your past, then his past mercies are guarantees of deliverances for your future.