It’s easy to lose heart and live in discouragement. If you look around, it looks like evil is winning.

People are mocking God and seeming to get away with it.

People are mistreating God’s people and no one seems to be able to do anything about it.

So many churches that are supposed to be a witness to the world of God’s grace have become so much like the world that they no longer have a discernible testimony and the true gospel has been sacrificed in the name of tolerance and relevance.

The news is getting worse every day. It seems like more and more the planet is drifting toward anarchy and chaos and away from God’s created order.

But when you read the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, you know that the story doesn’t end with ashes and tears. If you can look through eyes of faith, you can still see God at work even in the darkest of times.

Corrie ten Boom lived through some dark times. She saw some of the worst of humanity and lived to tell about it. She wrote about how when the train goes through a dark tunnel, you don’t jump off the train and throw away your ticket. You stay on board and trust the Engineer.

In the same way, when the news seems to be all bad, you don’t abandon your faith and throw away your Bible. That would be like jumping off of a life raft in the middle of a stormy sea.

You hold fast. You trust that the same Jesus who spoke peace to the waves will one day speak peace to the world. You trust that the Author of all that is good and right will again make all things good and right and whole and new.

If you need a reminder, read Revelation 22. Then you know that the story has a happy ending. Better yet, it has a happy beginning.