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What a year! COVID, the US election, and all the personal challenges people are experiencing. By now, I’m sure you know that depression cases are skyrocketing, alcoholism and substance abuse are at record highs, domestic abuse has increased, many people have lost their lives due to COVID, businesses are failing, and more.
If you’re not careful, you can allow all of the bad news to skew your entire perspective of life. In the world, he said we would have trouble, but to be of good cheer because he overcame the world. He also said that there would be wheat and weeds growing together in His kingdom until He returns.
Read my last few blogs for more on the parable of the wheat and weeds.
It is vital that the church be the church in these times of uncertainty. We know that God is destroying the enemies of Christ as we speak. His spirit is alive and active in the earth, as well as in our lives. But we also know the enemy’s weeds are growing as well. What are we to do?
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
The hope we hold to is the Gospel. We’re delivered from Messianic judgment. We are safe in Christ, and we will experience the restoration of all things when He returns and renews the universe. Until then, we hold fast. Not from a place of dread and fear, but a place of hope.
We already have the victory in Christ. What we allow to influence our hearts will manifest in our lives. We must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We must encourage one another, be kind to one another, lift each other up, and bear one another’s burdens.
Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else
We are to love one another to the degree that we identify with each other’s struggles. Paul warns us against comparing ourselves to one another in times of division. He says that if we will empathize with each other and bear one another’s burdens, we will not pridefully compare ourselves to one another.
What does comparing ourselves to one another have to do with the times we’re in?
Comparing yourself to someone else is the opposite of seeking to understand them and bear their burden. When you step into someone else’s shoes, listen to their story, and understand their journey, you will not be quick to make them your enemy.
We see people comparing themselves to one another in politics right now. We compare and judge based on who someone voted for. We compare and judge based on skin color. We compare and judge based on all sorts of divisive demographics. But if we can lay aside our pride and bear one another’s burdens, we can come together as a church.
Jesus prayed for it, I will not give up on the idea, no matter how bad it gets. Our love for one another is the catalyst for an unbelieving world to desire Jesus (John 17).
How do we get to a place where we lay down our pride and stop comparing ourselves, our beliefs, and our political views to other people? I believe allowing God’s life to flow from your heart is an important component.
John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
We have to realize that people are thirsty. They are thirsty for righteousness but don’t know it. So they drink of the world’s Kool-Aid. There is a craving to be satisfied by God in the heart of every human, but if they don’t choose to drink of God’s spirit, they will be under the influence of the world.
We must be so influenced by God that His spirit overflows into the world through us. It doesn’t matter the scale, how great or small your circle of influence, YOU MATTER!!! Your display of God’s love to those around you can change the world.
God is seeking to bless others, and he does it through you. Jesus is currently ruling and reigning in the earth through you. Are you exercising your king's decree to love others, or are you comparing the world to your version of right and wrong?
When you compare people to what you think must happen, you set yourself up for disappointment.
The world is dark, and it will get darker. But you are light. You are of the eternal kingdom that can never be extinguished. The world needs to see the church hold fast and experience God’s blessing and provision in the midst of the darkness. God specializes in such things. The world needs to see God’s children walking in His promises. The world needs to see Christ’s body extending a hand of empathy rather than judgment.
Jesus has already won, the world doesn’t know it yet. I want to be a trumpet through which God is announcing His kingdom's victory until He returns. I hope this is your prayer, as well. We need each other, and the world needs Jesus.
Let’s BE the Church and show the world how great our God is!! Open your heart to allow the wheat of his kingdom to grow in your life and make a decision to stop focusing on the weeds. He’s taking care of them as we speak. Stay focused, God’s kingdom is increasing!!
