In the language of the OT, the future is behind you and the past is in front of you. The Hebrew word for “in front of” (qedem) is the same word for “past.” And the word for “behind” (achar) is the basis for the word for “future” (achareet). Thus, if you were to ask Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob where the future was, they’d point behind them. Likewise, ask them where the past is, and they’d point in front of them.The reason for this is as simple as it is insightful: we have seen the past, but we have not seen the future. We know what has happened. It is done, finished, and laid bare before our eyes. Thus the past is in front of us, where our eyes can see it. On the other hand, we don’t know what the future holds. We cannot see it, thus it is hidden from our eyes or behind us. Therefore, in the Hebrew conception of time, one might say that we are always walking backward into the future.

Using this Hebrew cultural future concept to share “Loving through hardship” really help me to see how much God really loves us. All people in this life will sometimes have a period of suffering or privation. So viewing the future as that it is already here gives you an empirical look of your life. When things are going well-loving someone is much easier. However, when seemingly difficult hardships come such as loss of job, sickness, and disease, dying of a loved one, imprisonment of a child, What will help you through these devastating situations?

The only thing that I have found via looking at my future that can sustain you is “God’s love”. If you have ever been through a devastating situation you know no words from any human being can be said to help you. Only God can pierce through the pain of hardship and give you peace. The peace that God gives offers you the ability to comfort the one you love that is going through with you. To be able to pull them into that place of peace that can comfort you both and will push you into the image of being joined together as one that  God intended for all married couples to be.

These are the type of hardships that have torn married relationships apart and I just want to testify to my readers that these hardships the aforementioned ones that we have experience and much more has assisted in pushing us closer towards the destiny to becoming one that God wants us to be and we are yet being pushed.