Tuesday Reflection – June 08, 2021 Looking Forward to Brighter Days 
When we are experiencing hardships or difficulties, when we have received disappointing news or an unexpected and depressing diagnosis, it is great news to know that there is a promise of brighter days. As we continue in this period of pandemic and experience all the unexpected events associated with it, it is good to know that there is a promise of brighter days. Today’s watchword promises better days to an Israel that was experiencing feelings of abandonment by God as they struggled under the harsh conditions of captivity and exile. The prophesy of Isaiah was a promise of happier days. Hear today’s Watchword from Isaiah 60: 17. The Lord said, ‘I will appoint peace as your overseer and righteousness as your taskmaster.”  
In Isaiah 60, the prophecy focuses on the way God will redeem and use Israel as a light to the nations. It highlights a change from a time of darkness and gloom to a time of light and new life. Those who persecuted Israel will look to her as God’s chosen ones. What she lost through the persecution of the nations around her will be restored by God. She will experience better days than she had known. It shows us that when we lose stuff, we should not lose hope but keep trusting God who is able to restore to us much more that we lost. This spiritual renewal of Israel would lead to a time of physical prosperity for them. The grievances of the previous chapter – unfair and dishonest rulers – would be addressed under God’s new order. This would be welcome news for any suffering people and Israel was no exception. They could endure the present knowing that their future was already secured by God. The same goes for us. We endure the here and now knowing that God has brighter days in store for us. Peace, honor and prosperity is most attractive and meaningful after one has suffered through war, humiliation, and poverty. Indeed, the news of better days becomes most welcome to those experiencing hardships.    
For the child of God living in a time when the church and the Christian faith no longer enjoys the privilege of being held on a pedestal, when countries which once boasted to be Christian nations with their laws being the laws of Godliness have changed their position to one of secularism and individualism, it is good news to know that the time is coming when righteousness will be restored and God will receive the glory due to His name. In today’s world people and things are glorified. People in entertainment and politics are given more glory and admiration than that given to God, but the time is coming when their glory will be revealed as insignificant compared to that of the one true God, when their wealth and their earthly kingdoms will be discovered as insignificant compared to the kingdom that God will establish. In Fact, the time is coming when their possessions will prove worthless and useless to their salvation. 2 Cor 3: 10  For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.  
These days we have seen how helpless those who we esteem truly are. We have discovered how worthless the pursuit of wealth truly is and we have seen how hopeless the systems we hold in reverence can be. In the midst of it all, we have also seen the worth of faith and trust in God as well as the value of a life lived in hope of God’s eternity. May we be reminded then that God who gives peace and righteousness to the suffering and oppressed remains the only hope for a better and brighter future. We are reminded in Romans 14: 17 that ‘His kingdom is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’. Amen.
Bevon White