Awhile back, in a message, Brian spoke about “living in the pain of the gap”. This referred to the Kingdom of God where we live in the “already and the not yet”. God’s Kingdom is here, but it is not fully here. The Kingdom of God is kind of like looking at a picket fence. It is part fence and part air.
“Living in the pain of the gap” means even though we have a Sunday when hundreds of people get saved, we might also have a terminally ill family member. Even though I might feel God speak to me in a still small voice, my daughter still asks me why she is not getting healed of stomach problems when we pray. We are living in “the pain of the gap”. On the one hand, my sister had MS and eventually died of complications it caused, and on the other hand, there are hundreds of people being ministered to by our compassion ministry and medical clinic. They are receiving physical and emotional healing.
We all live there from time to time…in the pain of the gap.
I long to live in “shalom” which is where things are just the way God wants them to be. Heaven will be that way some day. But for the here and now, I can only be responsible for me. Where does God want me to be? In what area does He want me to make a difference?
So…I still pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Sometimes the gap closes for a bit and God’s Kingdom breaks in. Someone gets healed or ministered to and it is wonderful to see.
One day the Kingdom will be fully here and there will be no more living in the pain of the gap.
Amen.
Thora
