Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Ecclesiastes 7:8
This is a handy Scripture, but we don’t make good use of it. Let’s be thankful for it today.
What if we try looking at it this way: how many Biblical heroes or heroines can you think of who went into trial or difficulty or into battle, and just crashed and burned? Some of them crashed (many of them didn’t, keeping their integrity at all times,) but the flame didn’t kindle on them, just as God promised. They were chastened, they suffered tremendous set-backs, but so long as they stayed with the Lord, crying out to Him, humbling themselves, He stayed with them.
Job, Noah, David, Ruth, Joseph, Sarah, Daniel, Peter … and the prophets who suffered terribly, but walked with God.
By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient … Hebrews 11:31
Today, we are giving thanks for this, that although we have been through many and sometimes terrible difficulties, and sometimes perpetrated them, we are still here, still rejoicing, certainly wiser and more compassionate than we were, and it is yet to be seen what we will be before the end of the thing!
You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers . . .
1 Thessalonians 1:5
Many are they whose testimony indicates that the heat turned up after they first believed, but those who are still here to tell the story are strong and thriving today. No one can take the rejoicing worship from our hearts. No one. As long as we are worshiping (in Spirit and in truth,) we are winning, besides which …
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. (Revelation 21:7)
Not at the beginning, but at the end, is overcoming. It isn’t over until angels sing in our ears. We are meant to overcome. It would seem that failure to pass through each trial and come out overcoming is frowned upon. It makes sense when we see through these spectacles:
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
Revelation 12:11
That is something for which to be thankful. We are called, we are appointed, to overcome. Every tunnel for every one of us has that light at its end, and grace for oxygen. We can ask and imagine great and triumphant resolution in every confrontation, for we know that if we will not turn back, our God will not disappoint.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20,21
The original “Golden Spike” used to connect the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads near Ogden, Utah in 1869
WJenning, by permission,Wikipedia
Marketplace Monastics 