For the Kids
Life can be very hard. This world is very evil, and there are a lot of evil people in it. We have to guard our people from attack, and have to prepare our families for difficult times. Times like when there is little money or even little food. Times like when evil men might try to hurt the ones that we love. But if we try to prepare for these things thinking that we can do it all in our own strength, we are fooling ourselves. Because it is God that allows all things to happen, and can turn the situation around to be better. If we don't look to Him for our true safety, then bad things will happen. If we look to Him for all of our needs, He will bless us. And no matter what happens, we should sing and shout out that God is good and wonderful, that He is our strength and joy, that all good things come from Him and we can trust Him no matter what.
For the Adults
The most expensive military in the world. The most powerful economy. The highest level of consumerism. The United States is like the shining beacon on the hill for all of the world to look at and marvel at. And hate. We have many enemies, all either wanting what we have or hating us for our decadence. Yet we have faith in all of our own power that no one can possibly overthrow us. That is exactly why we are in a perfect position to fall. Like the Roman Empire, we are in debt over our ears and swooning in the drunken stupor of our own surplus. Our churches join in the chants for equality and tolerance for all paths of life, no matter how immoral. The bible is a footnote and not the driving force behind our country's motivating factors. God is being placed on the shelf in our increasingly atheistic public venues, a minor deity like all others to be invoked when there are times of trouble. And our Christians tolerate evil rather than speaking out against it, usually for the sake of maintaining "peace".
God will not be mocked or marginalized. He made all things, including you. Your heart beats because He operates every neuron that fires. There is no electron that escapes His management and purview. Like a tethered wild horse that is gradually being broken of its tendencies, our hearts and minds (and that of our society's) are allowed to range about until God is ready to reign us in, and that may come with a punishing touch depending on what He thinks is necessary.
Our individual responsibility is to realize that God is our provider - He gives us all good things. And sometimes bad, depending on what He thinks we need. He is our Creator, having breathed us into existence. The raging seas and aspiring mountainous peaks were practically an afterthought, the cherry on top of His mastery. And you and I are his centerpiece, more majestic and glorious than all creatures; we are the ones that He has invested all of His very heart, knowing we would reject all of His ways. The Father knew His son would die for us. The Holy Spirit knew the grimy touch of all of our tainted hearts before Adam existed and the Son knew we would spit on and beat Him before killing his mortal frame. And yet God lovingly formed all of us, exhaling into our first breath.
Our reaction to this should be to constantly give Him credit, all glory for the wonderful creation He has made. Praise for keeping us fed and clothed and dry from the storm. No, He doesn't protect us from all of the storms of life, but He provides the resilience and strength to push through, knowing exactly what resistance will build us up. Finally, He deserves all of our love for persevering with us... He stands by and waits while we betray Him, even watches as we beat and mock Him... and He says, "forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing."
No comments:
Post a Comment