The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Romans 13:12
We are living in unprecedented times of crises but in-spite of these uncertainties God will always call His children to show forth qualities that are far different from what the people of the world display in times like these.
Why is this so? God often uses crises to bring forth his glory and one of the ways this can be achieved is by asking His children to rely on his power and not get carried away by the noise of the enemy. The enemy will always make noise to distract the children of God. The Bible says the devil roars like a lion.
When Israel faced one of the most difficult conflict of their existence and of course of their faith, the rallying cry from Moses was the need for the children of Israel to look away from their distress and focus on God.
Moses assured them saying “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever”.
If the children of Israel had continued to look at their distress, the great deliverance would not come and God would not have been glorified. The bigger the conflict the bigger the opportunity for God to take the glory.
Consequently God requires His children to focus on him and be weaned from their distractions and the pleasures of the world. He has made the world uncomfortable for some of His children that they may focus on his power of deliverance and not on the deceptive reward of the world.
God uses this type of strategy because he knows that men by nature love pleasures more than the things that are important to their eternal destiny.
In Isaiah 21:5-6 we see a rebuke of certain leaders: when they ought to be in charge of the situation by focusing on the task at hand they were busy spreading out a feast just like there was no emergency. They were warned to get up, and to be prepared for the crises of the hour.
Similarly, as the evils of the end times bellows, a normal Christian cannot afford to live like the world without taking up his shield of faith in the Lord to prepare for the conflict. We are in a conflict already where our faith is challenged at every turn, and this conflict will determine our eternal life.
In the book of 1 Peter 5:8 we read about the following warning: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”.
And how do we position ourselves with God against the dark conflict of the hour? In many ways as being urgently instructed by many men of God who understand the need for a special relationship with God for this hour.
However of urgent need for the Christian is to understand that every Grace he has received is from the Lord and must be used to glorify God and not selfish motives.
He must know that no grace is given to serve self and the flesh. He must understand that all his blessings connect with the Lord and for one bigger purpose- all for the service of the Kingdom of God.
Bible Readings
Romans 13:11-14
