Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, blessing and grace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ, the savior and Lord of all who will believe in Him. Let God's mercy and grace rest on you this day.
I think you need a little shot of the Spirit this morning to start another day on this earth. Has their ever been a more difficult time to trust in the Lord? Open any news website, and a person can get all they want of terror, death, and sin. But is this time any worse than any other, or is it just that our knowledge of the sins committed in this world is greater than any time before? As Daniel told us, knowledge has increased, but not all of it is good knowledge. Trusting in the Lord is the solution to our knowledge of evil in the world, but is it more difficult now?
Daniel probably had a pretty good idea what a lion could do to a human body. Facing the door of the lions' den, Daniel had a choice to trust in God or collapse in fear. If trusting in God were easy or just easier at that time, I don't see it. Daniel's three friends faced the same choice regarding a very hot furnace, but they too trusted when it was not easy at all to trust. Things do look bad in our world, and the end times are here, but more difficult to trust? I don't think so.
Trusting in God through faith is not easy. If it were, everyone would find the way and go merrily about their miserable lives. Jesus said that the way is difficult and the gate narrow that leads to life and few find it.(Matt 7:14) We see the bad things in the world easily, that way is not difficult at all. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, and that way is difficult to follow. Why? Well we have this tendency to look at what we can see. If we try not to see it, someone is sure to help us see it. How many times is your favorite show interrupted by the 'news at 10' announcement? How many times is that news item about the wonderful thing a person did for someone in need? Right, very few. More often, it is about what someone did to harm another human being. We have no problem seeing the wide way that leads to destruction. That is why we need leading to come in at the narrow gate.
I once lived in a neighborhood where things looked pretty good for the inhabitants. Nice houses, new and late model vehicles, toys, and good jobs all around. (Once? It was just last year!) Okay, the ol' once upon a time thing sounds more fun though. Today, I wondered if I shouldn't have prayed more for those folks. Maybe, in their apparent success in this life, they could not realize their need for Jesus before eternity arrives on their doorstep. It may very well be that the narrow gate is easier to find when the world does not look quite as good from your vantage point. No, I don't recall ever praying that God would make them all poor. However, anything that causes us to look for Jesus instead of at our own 'success' might be worth it when thinking of eternity.
Things may look bad, but it could be a whole lot worse. Praise God there is still time to choose Jesus!Bucky
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