These Tumultuous Days

These Tumultuous Days

These are sure days of upheaval, unrest, disunity, and unkindness. Every day the news seems to get worse. Just when we dare to think things may improve, we are told about some new problem. There are political opinions stated as facts, conspiracy rumors swirling everywhere. We find ourselves presented with untenable choices where all the options seem unacceptable. It’s easy to feel anxious, worried, and fearful.

There is great value in remembering that Jesus said there would be days like this and that He would remain with us through it all. In John 16:33 He said, “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (NASB 2020) In Mark 13:7–8 He said, “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are only the beginning of birth pains.” (NASB 2020) He also said that He would be with us always, even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). He said that He would never leave us nor abandon us (Hebrews 13:5).

Jesus spoke at length about dealing with anxiety in Matthew 6:25–34, saying, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (NASB 2020).

We find rest by talking to Father about the things that cause us worry, stress, and anxiety. Laying our cares and anxious thoughts on Him and trusting in His faithfulness to be working for good. Paul advised us to pray without ceasing. I doubt he had in mind hiding away on our knees, eyes closed, hands folded in some closet. Rather, he was pointing us toward moment-by-moment trust and conversation with our lovely Lord. He was guiding us to the restful blessing that comes from knowing that Father knows absolutely everything everywhere all at once.

Whenever anxiety, fear, and confusion arise, we can tell Father about it. We can ask Him for wisdom, guidance, and insight. We can confess (homologeo – say the same as Him) that He is the Sovereign of the universe and that what we see around us is the ruin caused by the enemy, the power of sin, and the fall of mankind into hubris.

We see only the temporal, but we look forward to the eternal. We do not fit here, but we fit there. For this reason, we are encouraged by Paul in Colossians 3:2–4 “Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden (Greek: krypto) with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” (NASB 2020) Our ultimate future is secure. Our lives are safely encrypted, stored away, in God right along with Jesus Christ Himself.

One way we set our minds on things above is by remembering that what’s happening here is serving to draw others to consider Jesus. According to 2 Peter 3:9, Father is not willing that any should perish, but that all would put their trust in Jesus and find eternal life. This current tribulation is like the plagues in Egypt recounted in the book of Exodus. By these God warned Egypt of the coming judgement. The plagues were designed to get Pharoah to change his mind (repent) and believe what God said. Had he chosen obedience instead of defiance, he could have avoided judgement and death in the Red Sea.

With this goal in mind, the best thing we can do is express love and peace to those who are in bondage to the ruler of this world and, if they ask, tell them who it is that gives that love and peace to us. Helping them to see the intractable problems we face as the warnings they are; we can offer them a living hope of Love and Life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

For our own part, we can edify and build one another up. We can encourage one another. We can help each other be well equipped with the Truth of God. We are built for relationship, and when we help our sisters and brothers, our own anxiety and worry take a backseat to the peace and joy of fellowship and Love. This is faith working itself out through love (Galatians 5:6). It is godly, and it is profitable.

I worked in the computer software industry for 36 years. One fundamental rule of computer data processing is, “garbage in, garbage out.” In other words, if you put bad data into the computer, you are going to get bad results.

Philippians 4:4-8 tells us that the same thing is true of our minds. It says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (NASB 2020)

When we give our anxiety and concerns to the Lord Jesus, the peace He has given us is allowed to take over in us. When we let go of such things, we yield to what the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is doing in us. One aspect of the fruit He is producing is peace. That peace can be suppressed when we put our attention on what may happen and what we must to minimize or prevent it.

Giving things to God is important, but we can also stem the tide of bad input going into our computers. As we read above, Father counsels us to fill our minds with good input. It is not necessary for us to give place to worldly rumors, conspiracies, and predictions. We can choose to fill our minds with what is good and godly. We can scroll past negativity. We can unsubscribe from sources of ill feelings. We can cancel our appointments with serial purveyors of doom and gloom. The Kingdom, we are told in Romans 14:17, is “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Philippians 4:8, which we read earlier, urges us to think on certain things. These include:

Things that are true.
John 14:6 tells us that Jesus is Truth. He is truth with a capital ‘T’ because whatever He says is truth by definition. He spoke into being all that is, and it exists and is held together because of Him (Colossians 1:17). Jesus is the life because He is the source of life (John 5:21. 6:27, 17:2). There is no true life apart from Him (1 John 5:12).

Things that are honorable.
This refers to things that are venerable or worthy of honor. Things that deserve our respect or our worship. There is only One that is completely honorable and only One deserving of worship, and that is God. The Holy Spirit within us guides us into all truth according to John 16:3. By relying on Him, trusting that He is in fact doing that, we find ourselves disquieted in the face of dishonesty and untruth. In this way we are able to discern what is worldly, fleshly, and ungodly. Similarly, we find ourselves at peace when we focus on what Father says is true. Taking our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5) to the Word of God (John 1:1), the Lord Jesus who is Message and Messenger of God, results in mind renewal that transforms our thinking (Romans 12:2) and gives rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-29).

Things that are right.
God is just. When we recognize this, it alleviates a lot of negative feelings. In the end, the enemy and those who have chosen to believe his lies and reject the Love of God will not just get off the hook. Romans 3:26 tells us that God is just, and He is the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. He is infinitely righteous, holy, and true. There is no righteousness apart from Him. 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 tells us that the Lord Jesus made the very righteousness of God available to all who will agree to be reconciled to God through Him. Thinking out things that are right, then, is keeping our attention on the Righteous One, depending on Him to lead and guide as we navigate this valley shadowed by death.

Things that are pure.
This word is a form of (hagiazo) the Greek word we translate holy, saint, or sanctified. If we think on the things that are pure, holy, and sanctified, we may remember that we who are in Christ are called those things. Nearly all of Paul’s letters refer to the believers as saints. We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will do it.” (NASB 2020) When we agree with God about who He IS and who we are, we find that we are no longer so easily moved to worry, anxiety, and fear.

Things that are lovely.
These are acceptable things, agreeable things, things that are pleasing. If our minds are filled with such things, we find them spilling out to others. This is what witnessing looks like. We do not need to awkwardly find a way to interject Jesus into every conversation. Instead, we can rest in the knowledge that the Spirit is producing fruit in us and simply know that His fruit is showing up in ways that others can see. What could be more lovely than love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control? These are all aspects of the fruit He is producing in us, and we can trust Him not to let it go to waste. We might find ourselves perusing 1 Corinthians 13, examining the glorious descriptions of Father’s self-giving (agape’) Love. It is this Love that is the fruit the Spirit is growing within our souls. It is this Love that describes our lovely Lord Jesus. Allowing these descriptions of our God to seep into our minds wraps us in His comforting embrace and shows us what is right and pure and godly.

Things that are commendable.
One thing that is commendable is the good news of Jesus Christ. When we remember that we are forgiven, spiritual fruit is more effectively borne. In 2 Peter 1:9, Peter says that “the one who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.” (NASB 2020) The things to which he is referring include virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, kindness, and love. Reminding ourselves of the good news of what Jesus has done for us and made available to everyone causes us to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. It causes us to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit to those around us and in this way it contributes to righting what is wrong in the world.

Things that are praiseworthy and excellent.
All these things benefit us when we put them into our minds. As we think on such things all the negativity, divisiveness, conspiracy, and anger begin to wane. There is no room for such things in a mind filled with the goodness of the Lord. Rest, peace, love, and compassion begin to grow and to overflow. We benefit and so do those around us.

Father is completely trustworthy, and He will not fail to deliver the inheritance you have been promised.

We read about this in Hebrews 6:13–20 where we discover that, “when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear an oath by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “INDEED I WILL GREATLY BLESS YOU AND I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY YOU.” and so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For people swear an oath by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath serving as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to demonstrate to the heirs of the promise the fact that His purpose is unchangeable, confirmed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (NASB 2020)

In these tumultuous times, rest in this hope. Let your soul be anchored by the confident expectation of the Truth of God Himself. Our confident expectation is not misplaced and our hope cannot disappoint. Here is the way Paul put it in Romans 5:1–5 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (NASB 2020)

Do you see that? In Jesus Christ we have peace with God. By faith in Him we have access into His grace, and we are able to rejoice in the hope we have. The confident expectation of sharing in the glory of God. Because of all this we can face tribulation knowing that by it our patience, experience, and hope will grow, and that hope, which is an anchor for our souls, will not end in disappointment. We know this deep down because the Love of God is poured all over our soft, loving, new hearts. Consequently, we can live the truth of 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline (or sound judgement).” (NASB 2020)

Saints’ let’s not allow our enemy to stir us up like he does with the whole world. Instead let’s yield to Holy Spirit’s calming voice of reason. Let’s set our minds on what is good and godly. Let’s keep our attention on the Lord, looking and listening for where He is leading, what turns He has in mind, and where we can participate with Him.

The word of the Lord through Isaiah is:
“You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’ Regarding everything that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the LORD of armies whom you are to regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread.”
“Then He will become a sanctuary; But to both houses of Israel, He will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many will stumble over them, Then they will fall and be broken; They will be snared and caught.” Isaiah 8:12–15 (NASB 2020)

The Lord Jesus Christ will conquer evil.
The Lord Jesus Christ is conquering evil.
The Lord Jesus Christ has conquered evil.

Look beyond the visible things of this realm. You are ambassadors here.
Look to the invisible things of The Kingdom from which you hail. It is the Kingdom of power and the Kingdom of peace.