A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
On a Sunday afternoon, when I was 14 years old, I was at my Sunday school teacher’s home, practicing for a Christmas program. She suddenly burst into the room, her voice shaking. “Girls,” she cried, “run home just as fast as you can. There’s been a terrible bombing, and we’re in great danger. Hurry! Run!”
It was December 7, 1941. For four long and bitter years we lived with the reality of war. Every facility possible was converted to military manufacturing. No sugar, no gasolene, no new cars, no new household goods. Look for scrap metal to take to school for the government to make bombs and tanks. Black-out curtains cover windows. Sirens wail to warn of air raids. Young men who should have graduated in my class instead died on desolate Pacific islands I’d never heard of. Four years later, hostilities ended, at a terrible cost of human life. In the decades since, we have nver had any assurance of real peace.
With memories like that, I wasn’t overwhelmed when the phone ran the other day. A frantic voice asked, “Libby, is there going to be war?” My friend Suzy had been watching sobering events on television and she was very frightened. Were we going to war again?
I had to answer, “Yes, Suzy, I’m sorry to say it, but war will come. I don’t know when, but it will come.”
You understand, I don’t have a crystal ball. I have no inside information from anyone. But Jesus told us plainly, in Matthew 24:7.8: “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come” (Matthew 24:7,8 nlt).
“That’s the bad news, Suzy. But there’s good news, such good news! The God of Heaven and earth is still in charge. He’s in control. Nothing can happen without His permission. So you and I are safe, whatever the outcome of this threat.”
The night before Jesus died on the cross, He told His disciples,
I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart.
And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.
So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Remember what I told you:
I am going away, but I will come back to you again.
Later that night, Jesus repeated the message. He wanted His disciples—and us—to be comforted after He was gone:
Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows,
but take heart,
Because I have overcome the world. John 16:33 nlt
So, Suzy (and you, too, dear reader, if you’ve trusted Jesus), we’ve got it made. We can pray, and watch, and wait, but not with fear. No matter how frightening the news, no matter what governments threaten, no matter how dark the future, we don’t have to be afraid. Jesus has overcome the world. He will come back in triumph some day, and then:
Every knee will bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth,
And every tongue declare
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
To the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10,11