Guard Your Heart

     God willing, the pandemic may be coming to an end soon.  Last year was an unprecedented perfect storm.  A storm of disease, of political and racial upheaval, and of disparaging division not just between political parties, but also in the Church and between families and friends.  Trump became the scape goat for it all, but he was just a pawn in this thing we call life.  The storm had been brewing for a long time now, and most of us were caught totally by surprise.  To be honest, this storm started with the fall of man, when sin entered our world.  From that time on, there has been a war for our hearts.  From the beginning, God has had a sovereign plan for redemption of all creation.  He created all things for Him and by Him to glorify His name.  Not because He is a narcissistic god, but because He knows He is all good and all knowing and that He truly is the only way to true fulfillment.  He left that eternity shaped hole in our hearts that can be satisfied with NOTHING and NO ONE but Him, and one day it will all be consummated in the eradication of all evil and of all unbelievers, and those who are left will bask in His glory forever and ever in a new heaven and a new earth.  That is His sovereign plan.  We could never merit such a glorious ending, we could never be holy enough to abide in such a place, so He made a way for that as well.  He died a horrific, grotesque death on a cross so that all who believe could be made holy before His Father, holy so that we could bask in His glory forevermore.  Even creation is groaning for that day.  In its fallen state, it too waits for a time to be made right again.  It's almost too good to imagine, and yet, whether you believe it or not, it is true.  

     Yet, man continues to think that our plan is greater than God's plan.  We continue to try to be mini gods and control our lives every time we are disobedient.  We take the good things God has given us, food, creation, sex, family, friends, money, positions of authority, leadership, laws, life, art, literature, music, entertainment and we  take them outside of the boundaries God has given us for our good and for the good of mankind.  In our fallen nature, and with the deceitful murmurings of the spirit of darkness, we pervert the things God gave us to enjoy.  That is what has brought us to this place in history, not Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, and not this crazy virus.  It is our messed up hearts, and I'm not just talking about nonbelievers.  I am talking about the Church as well.  Some of us, think we know better than God, and have twisted the Bible to say what we want it to say, as the Bible says, "to tickle our ears."   Some are calling evil things good, and good evil.  It is all so twisted.  If you turn on your television or computer, and if you have eyes to see, in five seconds you will just see how twisted we have become.  The problem is we have become so immune to the darkness around us, that it is becoming normal.  We have let it creep in due to our own desires.   Mankind is arrogant enough to think they know better than God!  

     I always ask myself, "How did we get to this place?"  And the answer is, we let our hearts be deceived. We allowed people to question the inerrancy of the Bible, we softened the Gospel, we took God's grace and mercy for granted, and we became mini fake gods.  We developed our own individual truth, instead of the Truth.  We traded in the model car of our dreams for a hoopty!  Look at people's faces when they start talking about politics, and they become extremely ugly.  Turn on your TV, and all you will see is division, scoffing, namecalling, sexual deviance, murder, lies, pursuit of wealth at all costs.  It's truly ugly, and we want to wrap it in a big beautiful bow and call it amazing!!  

     So what can we as Christians do?  How do we bring light to such a dark world?  First of all, we fall on our faces and repent of our part in the whole mess.  Then, we turn from the darkness toward Christ and we trust Him to be our God, to love Him with our whole hearts, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourself.  We stop being consumed by selfishness, and look outside ourselves and allow God to guide us in our lives.  We live, with God's grace and the help of the Holy Spirit, within His boundaries for us.  We trust that His word is true and perfect for our reproof and correction.  We pray unceasingly that God would fill our souls with love for one another, even for those who don't believe, so that they might believe too.  People are always saying, "God hurry and come back."  Which I look forward to that day as well, but too many people I love are not ready, so I pray God please wait until more believe.  I pray for a revival of not just our nation but of the whole world.  God is not slow in coming, He is giving us more time.  My hope and prayer is that God will have mercy on us and more ears and eyes will be opened to His goodness and grace, and that we can return to Him and enjoy our fellowship together.  We can truly love each other through Christ and the darkness can be overcome.  Just be diligent my friends and guard your hearts.