Things That Remain – Mrs. M. Laning

In the most recent issue of the Standard Bearer (November 15, 2016), Mrs. Margaret Laning contributes to the  regular rubric on the Christian family, “When Thou Sittest in Thine House.”

Her article this time focuses on our need (especially that of the Christian wife and mother) to hold on to the “things that remain” in the midst of life’s trials and temptations.

Here is part of what she has to write on this important and timely subject:

In our trials when pressure and strain builds, when everything around us seems to be collapsing, we seek to hold on to something stable, too. Whether our stress adds up to 10 points or 310, God uses events like this to teach us that He alone is our unshakeable Rock. He teaches us this by the use of illustrations, as well. Earthquakes are for “…the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (Hebrews 12:27). We must examine what we are standing on in our afflictions – is it the created or the Creator, the shaken or the unshaken? When we stand on what we thought was dependable but is now crumbling right from under us, we are standing on the wrong thing. Christ is teaching us to hold on to, to trust, that which will remain.

…Christ is coming to remove the shaken in order to reveal that which cannot be shaken! All the sin, wickedness, and haters of God will be destroyed, while Christ and His unmoveable kingdom will be revealed in all of its fullness, glory, and majesty. We long for the birth of this new day.

Until then, we are prone to tremble with fear and doubts when the Lord gives us trials. Our home is destroyed. Our health or the health of our loved one is failing. We have anxious thoughts, fearing the unknown. Will the surgery be successful? Will the chemotherapy work? Our child is wayward. Our husband loses his job and financial worries keep us awake. Our spiritual enemies do not want us to be firmly grounded upon the Lord. They try ways to shake us to stop trusting our heavenly Father. They tempt us to doubt God’s love and inscrutable wisdom in the trials God sends for our good. These are the times, most especially, that God is turning our eyes to look upon the things that remain.

Good thoughts for us today and every day. On this Lord’s Day of our returning Savior may we fix our minds and hearts on the “things that remain.”