What causes someone to lay down their lives in sacrificial obedience to a cause? What causes someone to move forward in giving up their rights to themselves, their futures, and their dreams? Specifically for us, Church, what causes someone to live a life of total surrender and pursuit of Jesus? The answer to that question lies in another question: What preview are you watching? In Revelation 5, God, in His kindness, speaks a preview of hope to people who are struggling to hang on in faithful obedience amidst suffering, persecution, and temptations to compromise in their faith. This preview of hope to them is also a preview of hope to us. And if we allow this reality to grab hold of us, it won’t just transform us for the new year, but it will transform us for every year to come.
8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
