Beginning in Eden, the Scriptures tell the story of God’s unconquerable purpose to advance His saving reign on the earth. And this purpose is one that all creaturely agents, whether human or demonic, are powerless to oppose. God will reign. He will have His people. He will have His kingdom. And every enemy, including death itself, will come under His dominion or else be destroyed.

Make your vows to the LORD your God and perform them; let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared, who cuts off the spirit of princes, who is to be feared by the kings of the earth. (Psalm 76:11–12)
It has never gone well for the kings of the earth when they have attempted to oppose the God of heaven. Whether we are thinking of the ancient king of Ai, whose last moments were spent strung up in a tree (Josh. 8:29); or the thirty other kings of Canaan who soon followed suit (12:7–24); or Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who was driven out of his mind until he was willing to admit that “the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Dan. 4:32); or that old weasel Herod who was eaten by worms for failing to give glory to God (Acts 12:23) — whatever example we select, there is always one conclusion to be drawn: and that is that the only proper recourse for the kings of the earth is to bow to the Christ who is the Ruler of kings (Rev. 1:5). As the psalm so forcefully puts it, “[…] let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared, who cuts off the spirit of princes, who is to be feared by the kings of the earth” (vv. 11–12).
To put this another way, the Bible’s political theology is, minimally, one of indomitable triumph.
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As those who stand on this side of the resurrection, it is the particular duty of the saints to look “beyond the day of decline and insecurity to the full extent of God’s dominion.” The empty tomb ought to banish all frantic, anxious haste.

Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.(Psalm 69:34–36)
In times of widespread spiritual decline, it is only natural to feel the numbing influence of despair creeping steadily into the heart. But this, it turns out, is just the problem with despair: it is natural. It doesn’t proceed from faith, and in fact, is one of the furthest things from it.
Despair may be described as the simple loss of confidence and hope. It is that feeling of sad resignation that sweeps over the soul in response to some outward pressure or circumstance. As such, despair begins precisely where faith falters. Faith would have as its object the indomitable light of God’s revelation; despair cannot look past the gloom temporarily eclipsing its light. Instead, it cripples the heart with constant thoughts of temporal trouble.
The feeling of despair is not unfamiliar to the saints.
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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.Matthew 5:4
Common sense would seem to dictate that mourning is antithetical to blessedness, that lament and sorrow are at odds with happiness and flourishing. However, if we are going to judge reality according to Jesus’ words and not our own, we must apparently conclude otherwise. The wisdom of God is not the wisdom of man.
To “mourn” means to lament or grieve, especially at sin, loss, or death. The disciples “mourned and wept” at Jesus’ death prior to the resurrection (Mk. 16:10), and Paul was afraid that he would have to mourn over those who had “sinned in the past and not repented” when he came to visit the Corinthians a second time (2 Cor. 12:21). James uses the word in the context of grief over sin: “Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom” (Js. 4:9).
Thus to mourn in the New Testament is to feel grief and sorrow, and especially so toward the grim realities of sin and death. It is to feel the awful weight of the curse bearing down on you and to be burdened with a resultant sense of sadness and anguish. In short, to mourn is to see reality as it is; to look this fallen world full in the face, unhindered by naïve illusions, and to feel the only sensible response: sadness, grief, and loss.
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The Bible says the Church matures as saints speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) — and we have neglected both. We have accepted a dichotomy between these virtues that doesn’t in fact exist and have reaped the impotence our disobedience deserves. 

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbour, lest you incur sin because of him.” (Leviticus 19:17)
When it comes to speech, Christians have been catechized by the world far more than the Scriptures. Consider how we cringe at open statements of the truth and balk at hard words delivered in boldness. Or how we instinctively wince at correction and assume, in synchrony with our culture, that any word that fails to affirm another’s perceived identity is necessarily unloving. To say to someone, as Jesus did, “You are quite wrong,” immediately strikes us as inappropriate (Mk. 12:27). Worse still, we conceal our cowardice by telling ourselves we’re simply being kind or that we’re looking for a way to tell the truth without being divisive. 
The glaring reality remains, however, that we are far less biblical than we imagine. The only thing that binds our tongues is fear, not love. 
The trouble with these mistaken notions is that the conduit of love in the Scriptures is very often hard words.
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