As I live and breathe, this world is getting crazier by the second. The news reports of what is going on around the world is overwhelming and confusing and disgusting. Evil seems to be everywhere. No matter what way we turn, it seems like the world has been taken over. There has always been turmoil in this world, but it just seems so more extreme today, doesn't it? Am I imagining it? Or maybe I just really didn't pay attention to it as much.
Shootings, war, bombs, mass murders, the news is just filled with this junk. The world has become something scary. But truthfully hasn't it always been? Wars have been going on since the beginning of time. In the distant past people were stoned to death or hung or worse. I could list millions of ways that can testify that the past appeared worse than what's going on now. Yet we don't stop to think about that because we are concentrating on the here and now.
I could sit and cry a pool of tears, I could let the burden of what is going on continue to overwhelm me. I could watch the news and live in a state of depression. I could watch drama unfold on the TV screen and just want to runaway and hide on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere. But that will never change what has happened and what is happening. It's sad that so many of us live with such a burden for this world. Our hearts and our health take the brunt of these burdens and weigh us down until we become broken and lost in what is happening. Why?
Why are we surprised at what has happened and what is happening? Why do we live life so offended and so bitter? Why do we live so depressed and in a state of despair? Why do we allow this stuff to weigh us down? Why do we burden ourselves with the world? Can we change it? Can we do anything to make it better? Can we ever stop living offended when we see and hear what's happening? Why do we act so surprised?
1 John 4:4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
As a believer, God has challenged me once again to stop looking and what is going on and trust in Him. Worry, living life burdened and weighed down, depression, anxiety, hatred, anger and regrets are lies from our enemy. He wants us to be drug down into a life filled with burdens and pain. He wants us to continue to dwell on the condition of this world. He wants us to live broken and lost in a sea of regrets and pain. He wants us burdened with the weight of this world.
Are you kidding me? We sit in churches every week, we listen to messages and homilies about Jesus's resurrection from the dead. We read our Bibles about the saving grace of God and our promise of eternity when we believe in Jesus Christ. We listen to Christian music that sings of God's amazing love. But do we really pay attention to what we're reading and hearing? I doubt it, because if we did, if we really did pay attention, we would not be living the way we are right now.
As a believer I need to bury the truth of this verse deep in my heart and my mind. Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. Do you get that? Do I get that? Not really. I have read over this for years, I heard this preached about and talked about for years, but for the first time I really get it! Let me explain....
We live in a broken and fallen world full of sin and brokenness. The enemy rules this world, but we believers are not of this world (at least we shouldn't be). We need to realize that Jesus has already overcome this world and won for us! The Holy Spirit of the living God dwells in you and I. That me we are already overcomers. We have overcome this world by the blood of Jesus Christ. What we need to do is pray for this world and do our best to be examples of Jesus Christ wherever we go and to whoever we meet.
The greater one, who is not of this world, lives in me!
Lord thank you for overcoming this world for me. Thank you that I do not have to live in this world as it is now, because you live in me and have already fought the battle for me. You are greater than the one who lives in this world, help me to live in the promise of eternity, in Jesus name I pray, amen
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