What are we to make of this world today? Political unrest, divisiveness, viruses, and no one seems overly happy. What side should we take? What is our duty as Christians? Our duty is the same as it always has been. We are to seek God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). James told us to keep ourselves unentangled with the world (James 1:27). The Apostle John told us we must not love the things of this world (I John 2:15).
I think one reason we feel such stress and frustration today is that we had gotten overly comfortable with the world. Now that the world is changing, we’re upset because our focus has been on the world instead of Jesus. He never changes. If we had kept our focus on Him, much of what is occurring in the world today would not phase us.
I’m no different from anyone else. I have my opinions about what’s going on in the world. And I also believe Christians need to be informed and prepared. At the same time, when all is said and done, all that matters is Jesus. The only thing we should be concerned about every day is serving Him. Everything else is peripheral and, honestly, just not important. Only what we do for Jesus will remain. I recently read a great strategy for Christians: “Proclaim the Word. Work for reform. Pray for revival. And watch God do the work.” We must remember our charge in life is to go into all the world telling others about Jesus. We should have time for little else.
It seems our priorities have gotten messed up when we spend all our time talking about the affairs of the world, and so little time talking about Jesus. How many times has His name come up in your conversations today? Look around you. We live in a world of people eager to follow the ways and so-called wisdom of the world. They don’t even question it. Put simply, we live in a world of lost sheep. If we won’t talk about Jesus and proclaim the truth, who will? There is no hope outside of Jesus, so if they don’t know Christ, where will they find hope?
We got comfortable and lazy. It’s time to shake off the malaise and get to work. Because we spent so much time shirking our responsibility and cozying up to the world, the mission is even more difficult now. But it is still our mission. Our marching orders remain to go and tell. We must slough off the trappings and comforts of this world and boldly proclaim the name of Jesus.
If you haven’t noticed, everything you took comfort in is going away. Where you thought there was security, you now find decay. Nothing in this world can save you. There is no joy, no hope, and no peace in this world. But we can find all of this and more in Jesus. We have the truth others desperately need. But they’ll never hear if we remain obsessed with this present world. Don’t focus on the here and now, but on everything to come. Jesus is the solution to your pain, frustration, and despair. He is the light in your confusion. Place your focus back on the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is our refuge and our hope in these days of trouble (Psalm 46:1).