Every morning when I work on these thoughts, I got to a website that has daily readings from the Old Testament, the New Testament, a Gospel, as well as some daily Psalms.  And I’ve been reading this week, and honestly skipping around, because the New Testament readings for a while have been from Revelation.

And I’ve never been a huge fan of Revelation.  There’s so much there, it’s so deep, so many layers, it’s hard to reflect on in a short devotional.  But today, God keep telling me to read and think about what the point of Revelation was.

Ok, what’s the point of this book?  Revelation was written to a church that was getting crushed by Rome.  They were being persecuted. They were being killed. The Roman Empire was hunting them down and just slaughtering them. Christians were used as human torches by Nero and were thrown to the lions in the Coliseum.

We see a reference to persecution in today’s passage from Revelation 17: 6:

6And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.

Being a Christian in that are was a literal death sentence.

This is the church that Revelation was written to. And what is the overarching theme of Revelation?  God sees.  God knows. God will protect His people and His church.

He will bring justice upon those that have persecuted His church.  All will be well.  God is not silent. God is not passive.

So, don’t give up. Even though they hate you, beat you, kill you.  Don’t give up.  The Lord will return and make all things right.

That was the message of Revelation to the church in that day.

And maybe we need to hear that now.  We get scared.  Scared of circumstances in our life.  In our world.  In our country. Everywhere.

I know sometimes as Christians, everything we see, read, hear, is screaming at us BE AFRAID.  BE SCARED.  IT IS AWFUL AND TERRIBLE.  

But y’all.  Come on. We are Christians.  We are.  God is in control.  God wins in the end.  We cannot, we must not afraid. We are the children of God.  We have to have confidence.  We cannot live by fear.  We cannot.  We cannot.  We cannot live by fear.  

Remember.  God is silent. God is not passive.  All will be well.  That doesn’t mean that all will be easy. Or that all will be calm.

All will be well.  Seriously.

I tell people, I have a problem. I believe this stuff.  I believe that God raised Christ from the dead.  I believe that good wins over evil.  I believe in the resurrection and the return of Christ.

I know who wins in the end.

Do not be afraid.  Do not be afraid.  Do not be afraid.

Seriously. Do not be afraid.

God has this.  Trust.  God has this.

If you’d like to be added to my devotional list, click here to sign up.  You also can read these thoughts on St. Matthew’s new mobile app.  Click here to download!