“Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are
with me;”
Psalm 23:4
This week I have really felt like God is telling me
something, so I want to share what that is.
If you have tuned into the news at all the past couple of
weeks, things seem pretty dismal. There have been several huge earthquakes
around the world, threats of nuclear war, terrorist attacks even on our home
soil, political craziness, deaths, tragedy, and evil everywhere. Though the
news always seems pretty bad, it almost feels like things have cranked it up a
notch these days.
I don’t know for sure if the world is getting worse and
worse each day. I don't know if these are the end times. What I do know is that over the last few weeks God has showed
me that there are some wrong responses to have to the evil and tragedy in the
world and there are right responses to have as well.
Wrong Ways
I am the type of person who is afraid of their own shadow. I
sleep with my TV on at night because I get scared, all the time. If I hear a
sound outside that is sudden and loud, I freak out to the point of having to
text my boyfriend to tell him to pray for me. You could ask him, I text him for
prayer all the time out of fear of something. I am just a very fearful person.
When I hear about tragedies or wars or destruction going on
in the world, I get scared. Scared of what exactly, I am not sure, I just get so
scared that I lose sleep and I lose my appetite. That’s why I can’t watch all
of the disaster movies that have been coming out that people are fascinated
with, I can’t handle that. I fear disasters happening close to home. It’s
crippling sometimes, but this crippling fear is not the response that God wants
us to have as Christians.
Christians don’t need to be crippled with fear. In fact being crippled with fear keeps us from being effectively used for God's purpose. God tells
us constantly in His word to “fear not!” The first part of Isaiah 41:10 says “Fear
not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;” Philippians 4:6-7
says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus.” Psalm 23:4 says “Even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;” We
don’t need to fear because God is with us, always, and everywhere. The worst
that can happen to us as a Christian is that we die, and we get to meet our Savior,
and that is the best thing that can happen! We also don’t need to fear because
God has control. God is the Alpha and Omega, He created all things. He knows
all the days of man before they are even thought of being conceived He has planned
out everything. Everything that happens is part of God’s ultimate plan and He has
control of it all.
The Bible says that things are
just going to get bad in this world as the return of Jesus approaches. Christians are going to be heavily
persecuted, evil is going to be all over the place, and things are just going to get worse
and worse as the end draws near. Some Christians will tell you that we are in
the end times. Maybe we are, we really have no idea. But another wrong response
to have to this is to be apathetic and sit back as the end approaches.
The past few weeks I have been guilty of just brushing off
the evil in this world as a product of the end drawing near. I have developed
the belief that we should just stop trying to shoot for a Christian society because it just won’t happen. Gay marriage is just going to happen, why fight it? Mass killing will happen, no matter what, it is just a sign of it being evil times. Muslim presence is growing stronger and stronger, that's part of the end too right? Why fight it, right, right? Wrong! The past few church sermons that I
have listened to and a documentary that my boyfriend showed me really convicted
me and showed me that sitting back, doing nothing, and waiting for Jesus to return is also the wrong response to have. Tolerating sin because the world is just going to get worse does not help God's purpose!
God is an awesome and powerful God capable of doing even the
impossible. Though it seems impossible that our country will get better, or that the world will get better, that does not mean that we should doubt God's power. How
will things get better if we aren't out there fighting for it? And what does getting better even mean? We should be out there fighting for the salvation of others, for bringing hope and light to others, not necessarily bringing the end to pain and trials. There will always be trials and troubles in the world. And even
if these are the end times, shouldn't that encourage us even more so to fight sin and spread
the Gospel so that as many people as possible can be saved?
So What Are We Supposed To Do?
God convicted me of what I was doing wrong and he also
showed me what I should and what other Christians should be doing in these
crazy times in our world.
Right now our world needs a whole lot of
prayer.
We need to pray for the world. We need to pray for our leaders. We need to pray for each other. We need to
pray for missionaries and churches. We need to pray for the victims of
tragedies that might strike. We need to pray for ourselves. We need to pray for
God’s will to be done. We need to pray for strength. We need to pray for conviction. We need to just get down on our knees and start doing a
whole lot of praying.
3.) Hate Sin
Now is not a time to tolerate sin just because it's there and will continue. Yes there will always be some form of evil in the world until Jesus returns, but that doesn't mean that our response should be to sit back and let it happen. We need to hate sin as God hates sin. Psalm 5:4 says "For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with You." James 4:4 strongly says "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." It is obvious that God wants us to be strongly against sin, as He is, not to sit around and watch it happens!
There’s so much more to say on this matter but I will leave it here for now. Whether these are the end times or not, whether there is hope for some revival in this country and other parts of the world, whatever is happening or is going to happen, we just need to look to God and be used for His purpose. Don’t get caught up in the news stories, don’t be crippled with fear, don't be apathetic! Start praying, start reading God’s word, start changing your ways and being a light in the world, start hating sin and evil. And get out there into the missions field! The time to do that is right now!
God Bless,
Gabby
