The Pastors Heart 5/16/2014 It makes you want to throw up your hands in despair. Or maybe in disgust. Or how about in discouragement? I look around me in today’s culture and see morality maligned and perversion praised, God’s Word belittled and man’s word embraced, the voices of righteousness shouted down and the clamor of ungodliness exalted. I then look at much of American Christianity and see little there to encourage me. Biblical standards of holiness and separation are disdained while worldliness floods in. Music standards, dress standards, entertainment standards, and relationship standards look so much like the world that it is easy to understand why the Lord’s church is becoming less and less an influence for godly living in today’s society. Yet, having said that, we must not fall into what I call the “Elijah Syndrome,” thinking that “I, even I only, am left” who wants to do right (see 1 Kings 19). There is no room here for self pity or fatalism. We simply must understand the battle and the foe we face. I’ve been reminded this week of what Paul taught the church in Ephesians 6:10-13. It is a spiritual warfare we are engaged in, and we face a superior spiritual foe. If we try to fight it on our own, quitting will turn out to be our best option. We must stand. Firm. Boldly. Unwavering. Stand. But we must do so “in the Lord and in the power of His might.” We must stand dressed in “the whole armor of God.” We must stand together in unity and love. We must stand with God’s Word as our authority, Christlikeness as our goal, God’s glory as our purpose, and lost souls as our cause. I will confess; this week I’ve felt a little beaten up in the battle. In fact, there was a moment when I muttered to myself, “What’s the point?” But as soon as I said that, God answered, “I’m the point!” and turned me around with that Ephesians reminder. How about you? Has the battle gotten to you? Or are you standing strong in the Lord and the power of His might?
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 15:25:11 +0000
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