When you look at the chaos of this world, with wars, natural disasters, and divisiveness everywhere, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. It can feel hopeless, but if you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you have reason for hope and joy. This world, in its broken state, is not our home. Our home is with Christ, and as Pastor Richard will encourage us in today’s message, Jesus promised to return for us, and He will follow through.

Far too often, we write prayer off as the least we can do. While we’re called to go out and share the Gospel and glorify Jesus with our daily lives, prayer is not a small part of that. Jesus – who was one with His Father God – made it a priority to spend time in prayer regularly. As Pastor Richard will challenge us in today’s message, in times when we’re not sure what we can do to serve God and others, prayer should be our first resort.

God doesn’t need any of us. His care and concern for humanity come completely from a benevolent, loving heart. He desires a relationship with us and to restore us to the holiness He designed us for. As Pastor Richard will point out in today’s message, the forgiveness and redemption that God offers reflect how good He is. They point to a gracious heart, not because He needs what we have to offer or because we’ve earned His favor.

Once again, Pastor Richard will remind us of the profound significance of fulfilled prophecy and how this builds our faith like no other. Imagine knowing a person who could tell you where a person would be born, in what town, and even which family that person would be born into! It’s ASTOUNDING, when you really think about it! As you listen today, focus your attention on the power behind fulfilled prophecy and the future to come in Christ’s kingdom.

Faith in God is essential to stand strong against the attacks of the enemy. He’s no match for our God, but that doesn’t mean he’s not clever. His attacks come in subtle, unrelenting ways that can be easy to dismiss, while doubts start to build and we find ourselves compromising on our values. Today, Pastor Richard will encourage us to reinforce our faith through the Word and time in prayer, as well as surrounding ourselves with fellow believers.

As we walk through life with Jesus, we can sometimes forget the blessings we already have while chasing after what we want. When we become so focused on our own desires and needs, we may overlook the many gifts God has given us. That’s why, in today’s message, Pastor Richard encourages us to stay rooted in the Word of God and always remember that, although God doesn’t grant us everything we ask for, He will always provide what we truly need.

In the last edition of Word of Life, Pastor Richard shared with us numerous prophecies that have been fulfilled in the book of Daniel. And today, as we just heard from Pastor Richard, you’ll hear WHY this is so important. When a prophecy is fulfilled, it bolsters your faith in ways few things can. Faith is hard. But when a prophecy actually comes to pass, it becomes a little bit easier to believe in this beautiful God that we can’t see.

Prophecy is one of the most amazing elements of the Bible. If you stop and think about it, it will truly blow your mind! There’s never been another document on earth that had historical declarations about things that were going to happen…and then, THEY ACTUALLY HAPPENED!?!?!?!?! As Pastor Richard takes us through the eighth chapter of Daniel, you’ll hear a few more of these divine confirmations in the form of prophecies fulfilled.

THAT is the hope we have as followers of Jesus Christ. As dark as this world is not, we look forward to a time when Jesus returns for His people and initiates His glorious reign here on earth. Studying prophetic texts like Daniel can be discouraging WITHOUT keeping in mind that we won’t be here AND we will be with Jesus.

Tribulation isn’t a word we use often in our American vernacular. This is more of a “bible” word. Pastor Richard just introduced us to an even more fine-tuned look at the idea of tribulation, and that’s the “GREAT TRIBULATION”. You’ll learn today that you DO NOT want to be someone who is here on earth during this awful time in the history of mankind. You want to be with Jesus in heaven during this time.