An Open Letter

To My Brothers & Sisters In Christ

There are places of fear and pain inside us that no other person or thing can fill; truly they are designed for Someone Else to touch and heal. Without our strong attachment to Him, we can feel sad and hopeless. Without His perspective, as found in His words, we might think that the future seems bleak and out of control.

I experience some of those thoughts and feeling, too, yet I see the hope overlaid upon the future no matter how bad it looks to others. It’s a view of our world in light of Eternity. It comes through decades of experience with my Abba, my Papa God.

I have caught glimpses of joy – something that has been pretty elusive in my life considering the trauma I have experienced. Joy comes through the loudest and clearest in times of deep surrender to His Will. It comes through in the moments that I trust Him with all my heart against human “wisdom” or material constraints. When joy comes, I feel I must fairly glow with it, but I also notice that when others are discontented, it makes them uncomfortable – even angry – to see my contentment.

I have been in a place of joy, yet had to endure the onslaught of “rational fear-thinking” from those I love dearest and best; they fear I must be out of touch with the reality of evil and corruption in this world - as if I don’t understand what’s at stake. It is their bounden duty to enlighten me and make sure I comprehend how bad it all is. I know they don’t realize that they are playing devil’s advocate (in the purest sense of the term). They think they are helping.

The end is in sight. I’ve seen it coming for years. I have one main prayer for all that I love: “Lord, lead them to Yourself, no matter what the cost.” In the nighttime when I pray this, I know that if I think too hard about what it means in daylight, I may flinch and hold back. But no truly Godly prayer, no prayer according to His will, will go astray.

The second prayer is that I will put my trust in Him no matter what I see happening to those for whom I have prayed this prayer. I must trust in Him for all of it.

The third prayer that I pray is that God will help me to die a good death and not be a coward or a sell-out. He knows my weakness, and I have entrusted myself to His care. I can truly do nothing about the future except do God’s will for today. Jesus said that we cannot change the color of our hair nor add an inch to our height, and we cannot change the future. He said we should not worry about tomorrow because that day will have enough evil to overcome. Today is the only day we have. By looking too much to the future, we are not fully living today.

How do we know if we are living in tomorrow and bypassing today to speed on toward that uncertain future? We will see that all our focus comes to bear on things over which we have no control.

It’s not Pie In The Sky Bye and Bye. There are people whose lives we are meant to touch right here, right now. They yearn to know the Good News we have. That’s why Jesus left us here when we were born again. We have a job to do. We’re it. We are the ones. This is what we asked for. We must allow Holy Spirit to lead us, and make opportunities for us to share His love with the world.

We each hold a piece of this puzzle; we are meant to play our pieces each in our turn to find out what the whole thing looks like. We do not stand alone, but we are part of One Body in Jesus Christ. When our thinking cuts us off from the true Body, and we become isolated, we must find out where we got off the path.

There is a true Body of Christ out in the wide world. We are all linked, and we need each other. We must overlook small differences to love each other. We must learn to forgive as we have been forgiven if we are to have the hope of Heaven that we preach to others.

Like Paul, we must not allow our running to be in vain – to be disqualified at the end because we failed to remember what this race is truly about. It does not go to the swiftest or the finest physical specimen; it goes to the one who remains faithful – faith-filled – to the end.

To what end? A horror-filled finale to a fictionalized Great Tribulation? That isn’t the end. Not at all. We are not the ones who are being tried; we are the Lord’s children. Washed, sanctified, and set apart, our job is to cooperate with Holy Spirit to do the job true believers were preserved to do! Only God knows what the details are. He wants us to be available to Him, with no pre-conceived agenda on the side. That should be enough for us.

The bigger question is not “where will we go”, but “can we be trusted”? When will we empty ourselves of self-will, and make up our minds to do His will? It goes so very much against the grain to do this. I try to do a little of this every day, and I know how hard it is. It’s a trait of fallen humans to try to call the shots; it seems counter-intuitive to surrender our will to God.

Yielding takes guts! We all need practice doing it. I think this is why we don’t know where to go and what to do. It’s why we are spinning our wheels, hashing it out between ourselves, struggling to understand that which He has NOT chosen to reveal to us yet, and getting caught up in differences of opinion.

Jesus, Who was and is and is to come – fully human while on earth, and fully God – said that apart from His Father He could do nothing. He only did what He saw His Father doing. The seed fell to the ground and died, and it was raised again into new life. Jesus was that seed. You and I are the seed progeny of the one who was cut off from the land of the “living”. We are those who, losing our lives, will find true LIFE!

Time is very short. This is exhilarating! We see events that generations before us only dreamed of. It is time to side with God completely, not only with our minds and some sentimental attachment to the Sunday School version of the Ancient of Days slumbering in His beard but with the King, Glorious and Victorious, the Adonai Ts’Vaot – the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts – who will come to destroy the evil that has a stranglehold on the earth and bring His Righteous Judgment upon the earth!

Those who love Him will LOVE His appearing! We will not consider our flesh a big thing to lose so that we may stand true to Him who purchased our eternal life. We are immortal and it is time for us to stop living for this stinking thing that the world idolizes, primps, pampers, and sells. We are children of the KING of Righteousness and Glory! We must prepare to act like sons and daughters, even though some of us are taken to prison and some are put to the sword. We are immortal. We have been redeemed – PURCHASED from slavery! We must not fear death for this reason.

We had no choice but to start this human journey. The will of our fathers and the acquiescence of our mothers made that decision. We had no say in our upbringing, but it has shaped many of the twisted things in us that needed redemption.

Oh, but I can do all kinds of things apart from the will of God. So can you, and that is the main problem we have. We have a say in today.

Let’s live it as if it is our last. I choose to live each day as if it is my last day on earth. I try to remember to ask what gracious thing I can do to bless others whom I love – I even dare to ask what I may do for those I do not love but whom God does.

I choose to abide in the True Vine, apart from whom I can do nothing, and to do whatever I see Him doing. I choose to forgive others, as I have been forgiven. I choose to bear with others, long-suffering and uncomplaining to the best of my ability so that they might see in me a little bit of the nature and character of the God whom I serve. I choose to love others to Christ and love Christ with all my heart. And, I choose not to fear.

I am imperfect. I will fail sometimes – that is not being fatalistic, just realistic. But I will, with the help of my Lord, keep getting back up. I choose to worship Him in my heart, with my mouth, with my life, and with joy.

The joy of the Lord IS my strength, and I will not be afraid.

Pastora Cate Covert