Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 about the temporal and the eternal. He was encouraged by God’s promise, sealed in the Holy Spirit, that when his time on earth was done, he would be in the presence of the Lord. In verses seven and eight he writes, “for we walk by faith, not by sight– we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” In the last two days, two of God’s children that are part of the Cancer Care Ministry have gone from the temporal to the eternal. While I rejoice in knowing that their eternal state is with the Lord, I also grieve with their families in this seperation. Of course it always allows me to reflect back on being in this same place with my mother. C. H. Spurgeon delivered a message on January 8th, 1871 called “I Will Give You Rest” In this message he said, “By faith, I see our Lord standing in our midst, and I hear Him say, with voice of sweetest music, first to all of us together, and then to each one individually, ‘I will give you rest.’ May the Holy Spirit bring to each of us the fulness of the rest and peace of God!” That is the kind of prayer I lift up these families, including my own, with. God’s peace.
Spurgeon goes on the say:
This rest, we may conclude, must be a very wonderful one, since Jesus gives it. His hands give not by pennyworths and ounces; he gives golden gifts, in quantity immeasurable. It is Jesus who gives the peace of God which passeth all understanding. It is written, “Great peace have they which love Thy law;” what peace must they have who love God’s Son! There are periods when Jesus gives us a heavenly Elysium of rest; we cannot describe the divine repose of our hearts at such times. We read, in the Gospels, that when Jesus hushed the storm, “there was a great calm,” not simply “a calm”, but a great calm, unusual, absolute, perfect, memorable. It reminds us of the stillness which John describes in the Revelation: “I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree;” not a ripple stirred the waters, not a leaf moved on the trees.
Assuredly, our Lord has given a blessed rest to those who trust Him, and follow Him. They are often unable to inform others as to their deep peace, and the reasons upon which it is founded; but they know it, and it brings them an inward wealth compared with which the fortune of an ungodly millionaire is poverty itself. May we all know to the full, by happy, personal experience, the meaning of our Saviour’s promise, “I will give you rest”!
To think of this kind of peace for us left int he temporal and combine that with the enteral peace of being in the presence of the Prince of Peace – powerful stuff.
