Alpha and Omega, First and Last

Rev 1:11 " Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. " All our beginnings and endings are in the Lord as He is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and ending of this day and all the events of this day are in His hands. The beginning and ending of our lives, our careers, our children, our families, our hopes and dreams, our thoughts, words and deeds, our plans are all overseen, underwritten and guaranteed by Him. From first to last, He is with us. Why should we get stressed out with what happens in between? Why should we loose hope? Why should we get depressed or angry? Why should we become anxious or worried about the future? He is the all knowing and all encompassing One. He encircles us completely with His love. He surrounds us with His awesome power. He fulfills our every need. There is no perfect parent on earth but the Lord alone is the perfect Parent. Once our vision of God, the unseen and unsearchable One is in place, everything else in life will fall in its due place. There is no need to struggle as psychologists put it for self actualization or self fulfillment as He fulfills us and completes our understanding, our personality and our purpose. It gives us assurance, a sense of certainty and a sense of control. That is why I say that the locus of control lies within a man and not without. We need to consider the vision of God and write it down as it is so vital and important for the transformation of our lives. We need to reflect on the question- in what ways has the Lord been the Alpha and Omega of our lives in practical and real ways in the recent and distant past? In what ways do we expect Him to continue to be the Alpha and Omega of our future? We must not keep the vision of who God is with ourselves. We must communicate it along with our testimony of its fulfillment in our lives to the rest of the church. There are different levels of maturity that believers in the body of Christ are at. Out of the seven churches mentioned in this UV, only two had qualities that were commendable and no failing. The vision of who God really is will enable the different types of believers to grow in maturity. Prateep V Philip