My mom had a favorite response that she always had on a hair trigger to encourage folks going through difficulties. “This too shall pass.” It seems simplistic, but it is a wise observation of life.
David offered a similar encouragement in a Psalm that was written as a song of dedication. It served as a reminder that nothing in this life lasts forever. Not homes, fortunes, or even relationships. Not even brokenness and suffering. No matter how glorious or how awful life seems to be now, take courage, “This too shall pass.”
…Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:5 (NASB95)
What has arrested your spirit? What has brought you immeasurable pain? What relational conflict are you embroiled in as we speak? Perhaps your situation, your suffering, or your dispute has a grip on you that seems relentless. Remember, “This too shall pass.”
The principle applies on the other end of the spectrum as well. You may be living your best life. Perhaps you are sitting in the catbird seat. Maybe you are the most comfortable and secure you have ever been. Take care, “This too shall pass.”
Some struggle with the suffering of this life. They experience it and, at times, will attribute its existence as evidence that there can be no loving and good God in the world; otherwise, they would be more at ease. Is the Lord less loving when He accompanies us through the valley than if He happens to guide us around it? Personally, I find that I am more aware of His gracious provision when I am in a difficult place than when I am resting on a mountaintop. My self-interested heart doesn’t need much of an excuse to start singing my own praises and attributing my comfortable existence to my own efforts.
At the same time, suffering can be unbearable. Hurt, betrayal, criticism, and uncertainty can feel overwhelming for us. We can feel as though we are being crushed in their hands. Such an occasion requires a faith response. To survive, we MUST preach to ourselves, the truth of God’s Word. Listen to how Paul expresses it in Second Corinthians.
5For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.
6For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;
8we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
10always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
11For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12So death works in us, but life in you.
2 Corinthians 4:5–12 (NASB95)
The reality for those who follow Jesus cannot be anything except His reality. He suffered on behalf of others. You too will suffer, but “This too shall pass.”
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