=6 Victory Assured

I love to win! Who doesn't? And to know ahead of time you'll win is almost a dream. As we live and learn of Jesus Christ, His life and love for each of us, we hear the words hope, faith, trust, and others that don't quite have a rock-hard definition to them. It's hard to create a picture of them in your mind.

When God's word gives us a promise with a guarantee with it, it's easier to visualize. The phrase, “...shall doubtless come again,” is something that I can visualize and really rejoice in. This is the kind of Christian walk we need to enjoy as we reach out to teens with God's written promises and assurances. Let's see our example in greater detail, in Psalms 126, starting in verse 5. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”

Do you see the guarantee there? It's in the word 'shall'; not maybe, could be or anything else. SHALL means it's going to happen, if the proper steps are taken as specified. The promise as stated, is a little vague, because we have to know what we need to sow.

Somewhere I heard an old preacher say that if you need to have some part of scripture explained to you, the Bible is the best thing to do it. Most often we just need to take a closer look at it. That is often done by getting on our knees for a closer study.

In this case, the next verse gives us needed detail. “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

Our guarantee word is reinforced with 'shall doubtless'. The verse tells us that 'precious seed' (God's Word) is to be sown. We also see the added phrase describing the reason for rejoicing. “Bringing his sheaves with him.” That's a farmer's metaphor for bringing a soulwinner's harvest with him.

When we win at something, we rejoice. I find the 'joy' in verse 5 becomes 'rejoicing' in verse 6. In my thinking, joy (that we'll talk about later) becomes a more outward and contagious 'rejoicing'.

What grabs my attention most, is the 'tears' in verse 5 and the 'weeping' in verse 6.
We shed tears at the passing of a loved one, or hearing of a mistreated child. We easily shed tears watching a movie or book. What are some other things in your life, that prompts tears?

But it's almost like we have no more tears for the lost condition of a soul, young or old. This is especially true with our thoughts of teens and their desperate search for someone to care for them, that they physically cut themselves. They attempt to hide their inner pain with outer pain and odd appearances.

So, the bottom line is that on one side of the teen bridge, we have the marching orders, the Bible directives and assurance of victory. On the other side of the bridge are teens that react with all levels of self destruction and help cries. The simple-to-understand catalyst to bring hope and full joy to the teen, and fulfillment to you and I, is tears. Tears that come from our heart and won't settle for anything less than action; action directed by God and His word.