Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects exactly what Jesus taught his disciples to do in light of the days ahead. He spoke of cataclysmic judgments and a coming time of great tribulation when God will judge the world, a period described in detail in Revelation chapters 6 through 18, and he told them to pray always that they would be counted worthy to escape all these things that are coming to pass upon the earth and to stand before the Son of Man. That is the strength you are asking for in Luke 21:36, and it is right to ask for it.
Scripture makes a clear distinction that helps to steady the heart. On one hand, as long as we are in this world which is opposed to Christ, we will have tribulation. The world hated him and it will hate those who follow him, and every trial can become an opportunity for God to show himself and work in our lives as we learn to wait on him. On the other hand, the great tribulation is the outpouring of the wrath of God upon a world that knows not God and obeys not the gospel, when the Lord comes with his mighty angels in flaming fire. It is inconsistent with the nature of God and with the finished work of Christ, who bore the wrath of God for our sin, to think that those who are in Christ would be appointed to that wrath. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to settle this very fear, assuring them that the severe persecution they were already facing was not the Day of the Lord, and he had already taught them how those who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so be forever with him.
That is why your desire to abide in him is so central. Jesus taught in John 15 that we are branches in the vine, and only as we remain in him does his life remain in us and bear fruit. John also taught that what we heard from the beginning must remain in us, that we continue in the Son and in the Father, holding fast to the truth that Jesus is God manifested in the flesh and abiding in his command to love one another. From that place of abiding comes the fullness of joy and the confidence in prayer that whatever we ask according to his will, which is his Word, he hears.
You also prayed about the shakings and the beginning of birth pangs. The prophets and apostles tell us that everything that can be shaken will be shaken, heaven and earth and sea and dry land, so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, we can worship with reverence and awe even while things shift around us and in our personal lives. Jesus said nation will rise against nation and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places, but all these are merely the beginning of birth pangs. He warned, see to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in his name and many false prophets will arise. The way to not be deceived and not be frightened is to hold fast to what the apostles taught and to keep our hearts from being weighed down with dissipation and the worries of life, staying alert and prayerful.
For that you need inner strength that you do not have in yourself. The enemy is powerful and the temptations are real, and Paul prayed that believers would be strengthened with power by the Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may settle down and make himself at home in our hearts through faith. When he dwells there comfortably, we understand more of the breadth and length and height and depth of his love, the length to which God was willing to go to save us and the heights to which he intends to bring us. Your inheritance is reserved in heaven, kept by the power of God through faith, and your safest place is simply to be in Christ, in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, established in fellowship with him.
So continue to pray as you are praying, for daily bread, for a close and living connection to Jesus, for the Spirit to transform you from glory to glory with unveiled face, and for grace to endure to the end and to strengthen others as ambassadors of reconciliation. Nothing created, neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come nor any power nor height nor depth, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is risen and at the right hand of God interceding for us that our faith may not fail. He is faithful to keep you, to cause you to abound in his love, and to present you before himself when he comes to be glorified in his people.
Scripture makes a clear distinction that helps to steady the heart. On one hand, as long as we are in this world which is opposed to Christ, we will have tribulation. The world hated him and it will hate those who follow him, and every trial can become an opportunity for God to show himself and work in our lives as we learn to wait on him. On the other hand, the great tribulation is the outpouring of the wrath of God upon a world that knows not God and obeys not the gospel, when the Lord comes with his mighty angels in flaming fire. It is inconsistent with the nature of God and with the finished work of Christ, who bore the wrath of God for our sin, to think that those who are in Christ would be appointed to that wrath. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to settle this very fear, assuring them that the severe persecution they were already facing was not the Day of the Lord, and he had already taught them how those who are alive and remain will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so be forever with him.
That is why your desire to abide in him is so central. Jesus taught in John 15 that we are branches in the vine, and only as we remain in him does his life remain in us and bear fruit. John also taught that what we heard from the beginning must remain in us, that we continue in the Son and in the Father, holding fast to the truth that Jesus is God manifested in the flesh and abiding in his command to love one another. From that place of abiding comes the fullness of joy and the confidence in prayer that whatever we ask according to his will, which is his Word, he hears.
You also prayed about the shakings and the beginning of birth pangs. The prophets and apostles tell us that everything that can be shaken will be shaken, heaven and earth and sea and dry land, so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, we can worship with reverence and awe even while things shift around us and in our personal lives. Jesus said nation will rise against nation and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places, but all these are merely the beginning of birth pangs. He warned, see to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in his name and many false prophets will arise. The way to not be deceived and not be frightened is to hold fast to what the apostles taught and to keep our hearts from being weighed down with dissipation and the worries of life, staying alert and prayerful.
For that you need inner strength that you do not have in yourself. The enemy is powerful and the temptations are real, and Paul prayed that believers would be strengthened with power by the Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may settle down and make himself at home in our hearts through faith. When he dwells there comfortably, we understand more of the breadth and length and height and depth of his love, the length to which God was willing to go to save us and the heights to which he intends to bring us. Your inheritance is reserved in heaven, kept by the power of God through faith, and your safest place is simply to be in Christ, in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, established in fellowship with him.
So continue to pray as you are praying, for daily bread, for a close and living connection to Jesus, for the Spirit to transform you from glory to glory with unveiled face, and for grace to endure to the end and to strengthen others as ambassadors of reconciliation. Nothing created, neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come nor any power nor height nor depth, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is risen and at the right hand of God interceding for us that our faith may not fail. He is faithful to keep you, to cause you to abound in his love, and to present you before himself when he comes to be glorified in his people.
