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EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT
Rev. Donald L. Rose
The Lord is continually speaking with people (Arcana Coelestia 904).
When you comfort a person in real trouble or distress, you may find yourself saying, “Everything is going to be all right.” Maybe the person you are talking to is badly injured. Maybe the person has suffered a terrible loss. Maybe the present distress is bringing a time of sorrow that will endure for a long while. But still you say, “Everything is going to be all right.”
And you are telling the truth!
Yes, you are telling the truth. It is not because you have some special knowledge and can predict the future. It’s just true. It is true because the Lord has all power, and He loves and cares for us. And the Lord speaks to us with a speech that is higher than words. It is truth coming right to us, saying that He loves us, telling us to trust in Him and to do good, telling us that everything will be all right.
Sometimes the Lord’s speech to us seems so far away that hardly any truth gets to us, and we are not touched with comfort or hope. At these times, the Heavenly Doctrines for the New Church tell us that it is almost as if He were not speaking to us (see Arcana Coelestia 904). But, of course, He is. People can turn away from Him so that they do not hear. When we are thoughtless or cruel, we do not hear. When we are too worried and fearful, we do not hear. In fact, someone could read something to us directly from the Word, and we could be untouched by it, as if we did not really hear.
Think of what the Lord says to people in the Word—
I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you (Joshua 1:5).
Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
Let not your heart be troubled…I go to prepare a place for you (John 14:1,2).
Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
I am with you always (Matthew 28:20).
The Lord speaks many comforting words in His Word. Think of Joseph during that unhappy time when he was hated by his brothers and probably feared what they might do to him. Such fears would have been understandable, but even then the Lord was saying that everything would be all right. Joseph had dreams, which in a distant and symbolic way, told him that all would be well.
Can you imagine the pain and sorrow David and his men felt in another story when they returned to their homes one day and found nothing but ashes? Their homes were burned, and everything had been taken away, including their wives and children. Grown men were sobbing until they were exhausted from crying. David had also lost his family and possessions, but still the grief stricken men talked of stoning him in their despair and frustration.
We read, “And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (I Samuel 30:6). David did not find strength or hope in himself, but only from the Lord. He did not know what would happen next, but he was willing to listen to the Lord. He asked the priest to get the ephod—the breastplate with precious stones whose sparkles and flashes showed what the Lord was saying.
And what the Lord said was a message of hope and amazing assurance. David was told that without fail he would get everything back that had been taken (see I Samuel 30:8).
Inspired by hope, not from David, but from the Lord, the men chased after the people who had stolen their families and possessions. And at the end of the story, they did indeed recover everything. “And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them. David recovered all” (I Samuel 30:19).
Here we have a story of seeming hopelessness, ending with everything being all right. David knew things would be all right, and his knowing this from the Lord made all the difference in what he did.
At times when people feel trust in the Lord, they can just know something. They even know that whatever happens to them in time will still lead to that happiness. “They know that for those who trust in the Lord all things advance toward a happy state. Whatever happens to them, whether it appears to be prosperous or not prosperous, is still good, because it conduces as a means to their eternal happiness” (Arcana Coelestia 8480:3).
It is good that we know important things—that there is a heaven, that there is a Divine Providence over all things, that the Lord has all power in heaven and on earth. Sometimes these things do not comfort us, and it is almost as if we did not know them. But they are true, and the Lord is always telling us they are true.
So, when you comfort another person in time of trouble, you may be able to hear the Lord speaking. This means that you are in a trusting state of truth. You find yourself speaking words of hope. And these thoughts of comfort and hope do not come from yourself (see Arcana Coelestia 904.) And so it is possible for us to truly say to someone else in distress, “everything is going to be all right.”
Rev. Donald L. Rose
The Lord is continually speaking with people (Arcana Coelestia 904).
When you comfort a person in real trouble or distress, you may find yourself saying, “Everything is going to be all right.” Maybe the person you are talking to is badly injured. Maybe the person has suffered a terrible loss. Maybe the present distress is bringing a time of sorrow that will endure for a long while. But still you say, “Everything is going to be all right.”
And you are telling the truth!
Yes, you are telling the truth. It is not because you have some special knowledge and can predict the future. It’s just true. It is true because the Lord has all power, and He loves and cares for us. And the Lord speaks to us with a speech that is higher than words. It is truth coming right to us, saying that He loves us, telling us to trust in Him and to do good, telling us that everything will be all right.
Sometimes the Lord’s speech to us seems so far away that hardly any truth gets to us, and we are not touched with comfort or hope. At these times, the Heavenly Doctrines for the New Church tell us that it is almost as if He were not speaking to us (see Arcana Coelestia 904). But, of course, He is. People can turn away from Him so that they do not hear. When we are thoughtless or cruel, we do not hear. When we are too worried and fearful, we do not hear. In fact, someone could read something to us directly from the Word, and we could be untouched by it, as if we did not really hear.
Think of what the Lord says to people in the Word—
I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you (Joshua 1:5).
Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
Let not your heart be troubled…I go to prepare a place for you (John 14:1,2).
Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
I am with you always (Matthew 28:20).
The Lord speaks many comforting words in His Word. Think of Joseph during that unhappy time when he was hated by his brothers and probably feared what they might do to him. Such fears would have been understandable, but even then the Lord was saying that everything would be all right. Joseph had dreams, which in a distant and symbolic way, told him that all would be well.
Can you imagine the pain and sorrow David and his men felt in another story when they returned to their homes one day and found nothing but ashes? Their homes were burned, and everything had been taken away, including their wives and children. Grown men were sobbing until they were exhausted from crying. David had also lost his family and possessions, but still the grief stricken men talked of stoning him in their despair and frustration.
We read, “And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (I Samuel 30:6). David did not find strength or hope in himself, but only from the Lord. He did not know what would happen next, but he was willing to listen to the Lord. He asked the priest to get the ephod—the breastplate with precious stones whose sparkles and flashes showed what the Lord was saying.
And what the Lord said was a message of hope and amazing assurance. David was told that without fail he would get everything back that had been taken (see I Samuel 30:8).
Inspired by hope, not from David, but from the Lord, the men chased after the people who had stolen their families and possessions. And at the end of the story, they did indeed recover everything. “And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them. David recovered all” (I Samuel 30:19).
Here we have a story of seeming hopelessness, ending with everything being all right. David knew things would be all right, and his knowing this from the Lord made all the difference in what he did.
At times when people feel trust in the Lord, they can just know something. They even know that whatever happens to them in time will still lead to that happiness. “They know that for those who trust in the Lord all things advance toward a happy state. Whatever happens to them, whether it appears to be prosperous or not prosperous, is still good, because it conduces as a means to their eternal happiness” (Arcana Coelestia 8480:3).
It is good that we know important things—that there is a heaven, that there is a Divine Providence over all things, that the Lord has all power in heaven and on earth. Sometimes these things do not comfort us, and it is almost as if we did not know them. But they are true, and the Lord is always telling us they are true.
So, when you comfort another person in time of trouble, you may be able to hear the Lord speaking. This means that you are in a trusting state of truth. You find yourself speaking words of hope. And these thoughts of comfort and hope do not come from yourself (see Arcana Coelestia 904.) And so it is possible for us to truly say to someone else in distress, “everything is going to be all right.”
Printable Version: ItWillBeAllRight.pdf