DO NOT BE AFRAID
THERE ARE ASPECTS of prophecy that are frightening (not to say causing panic or terror). When we took around us, we also see that there are reasons for being afraid: certain leaders of countries who generate instability; religious persecution in different parts of the world; lack of rights, particularly in the case of women; absence of justice or fair judgments; wars or political uncertainty, and so on. Thinking that what is coming will be even worse can dishearten us. And it is from that viewpoint that we launch into the reading of Revelation.
However, I believe that nothing of what God has left written in His Word has the object of disheartening us, but just the opposite: to make us feel strong in Him when we see that the signs that were predicted are being fulfilled. %us, we always need to keep this in mind when we get into reading the prophecies. Revelation is, in reality, a love letter from Jesus, and we have to start from that basis when we interpret it.
We don’t normally (or naturally) think about the love of Jesus or of a «loving Jesus» when we read Revelation. Many of us read the Apocalypse with forebodings rather than hope. It produces in us ethical confusion rather than certainty… The book’s beasts and blasphemy, battles and blood, and destruction, despair, and darkness quickly overwhelm us. Revelation’s violent sequences of war and threats of judgment and eternal damnation make the book a challenging, often horrifying, be. wildering, and confusing text.. .. But John opens Revelation with a phrase that unfolds both the tide and the subject of the book: ‘The revelation of Jesus Christ» … But in our contemporary culture, the term «apocalypse» has become a synonym for ‘doomsday,» a reference to the end of the world, whether by violence, economic catastrophe, or natural disaster. But for John and his readers, the Apocalypse was a revealing of Jesus Christ—and unveiling of His greatness and glory It presents Jesus Christ as history’s controlling reality and describes Him in such a way that absolutely everything is subordinated to Him. Revelation is nothing if not focused on Jesus Christ…. Most wonderful (and surprising) Of all, we are the privileged objects of Jesus’s incredible love! He loves you and me
(Larry Lichtenwalter, Revelation’s Great Love Story: More Than I Ever Imagined, pp.11, 12)
Remember this when you feel that fear of the future is overwhelming you.
«He was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority … It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation» (Revelation 13:4—7).
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Take From: Daily Devotions for Women’s 2020
«One Day at a Time»
From: Patricia Muñoz Bertozzi
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Magda Sanz T