{"id":5197,"date":"2014-04-02T00:05:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T07:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5197"},"modified":"2014-04-01T22:39:27","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T05:39:27","slug":"remembering-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/04\/02\/remembering-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is what the LORD says:
\n\u201cI will give Jerusalem a river of peace and prosperity.
\nThe wealth of the nations will flow to her.
\nHer children will be nursed at her breasts,
\ncarried in her arms, and held on her lap.
\nI will comfort you there in Jerusalem
\nas a mother comforts her child.\u201d
\nWhen you see these things, your heart will rejoice.
\nYou will flourish like the grass!
\nEveryone will see the LORD\u2019s hand of blessing on his servants\u2014
\nand his anger against his enemies.
\nSee, the LORD is coming with fire,
\nand his swift chariots roar like a whirlwind.
\nHe will bring punishment with the fury of his anger
\nand the flaming fire of his hot rebuke.
\nThe LORD will punish the world by fire
\nand by his sword.
\nHe will judge the earth,
\nand many will be killed by him. (Isaiah 66:12-16)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why can\u2019t we be happy today like we will be tomorrow when God makes everything okay? As human beings, we can only respond to what we can see, whether it is the pain of the moment, or our anticipation of whatever we think is likely to happen tomorrow. Pain overwhelms us more than joy ever can; the suffering we experience goes deeper than our pleasures, affects us more deeply. No one goes into counseling to uncover repressed memories of happiness. No one endures flashbacks of good times, or finds their current circumstances circumscribed by memories of ecstasy gone by.<\/p>\n

The words translated \u201cearth\u201d and \u201cworld\u201d in context refer to the lands of Mesopotamia, the \u201cworld\u201d of the Assyrians and Babylonians. God promised the Israelites that he would avenge their pain against these tormenters who had destroyed their homeland and taken them away into captivity. God\u2019s promises of tomorrow were intended to bring joy in the midst of today\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n

Only with God can we come to a place of optimism, of recognizing that the future memories we will have of eternal bliss can deeply constrain our experiences of today. Likewise, the satisfaction of God\u2019s yet-to-be certain judgment on our enemies should be able to render aid to us as we endure their blows today.<\/p>\n

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This is what the LORD says: \u201cI will give Jerusalem a river of peace and prosperity. The wealth of the nations will flow to her. Her children will be nursed at her breasts, carried in her arms, and held on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5199,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions\/5199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}