“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” John 16:33 

This world is fallen, and pain is inevitable, but God understands suffering and for those that repent and accept Jesus as their Lord and saviour He sends the Holy Spirit to be our comforter as well as our counsellor and teacher.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” Psalm 23:4

We are not forsaken. God, who carried the cross, knows our torment. Jesus wept for Lazarus, bore the lash of betrayal, and drank the full cup of God’s wrath against sin. He is not a distant deity; He is near, catching every tear, feeling every wound. His scarred hands hold us. When the world’s brokenness threatens to drown us, we cling to the One who declares, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Our agony is not unseen; our pain is not without purpose.

Scripture is laden with proof that God understands our suffering with Jesus Himself being the greatest example, for “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). In John 15:18, Jesus also warned us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

But 1 Peter 5:10 asks us to hold on, for “after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” And we can find comfort in the promise of Psalm 147:3, “He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.”

God uses tragedy for good.

In the chaos of Charlie’s assassination, as panic gripped and hope flickered, Joseph Backholm of Family Research Council asked God to use this for good. And you know what? He is.

They report people are falling to their knees in prayer. Souls who’ve never darkened a church’s door feel a pull to worship. “I’ve seen hearts break open — people apologizing for venomous words hurled at Charlie, ashamed of their hatred”. Some are abandoning ideologies soaked in malice, seeing them for the poison they are. Others are rising, vowing to carry the torch of truth, to marry and raise families rooted in faith, to use their voices to ignite courage in others. Christians, too, are shaking off their slumber, emboldened to stand unyielding in the face of evil.

It is difficult to fully fathom why such heartbreak is allowed, why evil is permitted to wound so deeply. But know this: God is good. No weapon formed against His purposes will prosper (Isaiah 54:17). As Charles Spurgeon so powerfully said, “I have learned to kiss the wave that slams me into the Rock of Ages.” I despise the pain we endure, but I praise a God rich in grace and mercy, who gives our suffering meaning — who gives us hope in life and death. He takes what evil intends for destruction and weaves it into redemption. As Genesis 50:20 declares, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”

“Where, o death, is your victory? Where, o grave, is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:55

I firmly believe that Charlie was a brother in Christ, which means a brother was taken from us. But do you know what else that means? Charlie is home now having been welcomed with the words all believers long to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

As Christians, we view suffering through the lens of eternity. This world, with all its beauty and brokenness, is not our final destination. Every trial we face, every tear we shed, carries eternal weight because we are running a race toward the finish line. Death does not have the final word. The pain we endure is no match for the blood of Christ. We have hope, now and forever, in His name, because He is the lamb who was slain for us. As Charlie posted days before his death, “Jesus defeated death so you can live.”

The sting of death for the Christian? Gone! Christ has taken that sting for us, and death is now a welcome friend.” Someday soon, we will see, before our very eyes, Jesus returning in the clouds.

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him… Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

But as this Scripture reveals, the Antichrist (man of lawlessness0 comes first. Many of the Biblical end times prophecies given to us by Jesus, Paul, John and the O.T. prophets particularly Daniel, Isaiah and Ezekiel are playing out in our day. In Daniel’s seventy weeks prophecy we are given a lot of detail on the the last seven years prior to Jesus return and based on what the UN is doing to implement a two state solution for Israel and Palestine (Peace Treaty) we may be at the beginning of the seven years. As Jesus told us:

“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Luke 21:28