Signs of Our Times

It is interesting to note that our relationship with the Lord can be model of our human relationships. If we walk in pride and aloofness toward our fellow human being, very likely we think that we deserve the goodness of God. Christ made it clear that no one deserves anything but condemnation. It is only through the shed blood of Christ and His dwelling in us that we can be loving and kind to another human being.

When we are self focused instead of Christ focused our relationships with others will be based on what we can get out of them rather than what we can offer them, personal expectations toward others rule our thinking. And, that is the picture and operation we have with our Lord. A self focus will cause us to see God as our servant and puppet to do our bidding. We will be materialistic, protecting whatever is ours and getting as much out of life as we can no matter who it may inconvenience or harm. These people have difficulty admitting their sin to God or to anyone. They spend their time justifying the hurt they have caused and running from the solution.

When we are Christ focused, we will see others as objects of our love, seeking to obey Christ in our love and service to them. Our first thoughts will be how to help or please them. Our possessions belong to God, and we will love to share them. We share our time, our things and our thoughts. We will not be requiring actions, thoughts or convictions to meet our expectations, but we will find ways to meet the desires of others. We will also want the best for our friends in terms of their spiritual needs. Do we praise them when they need a word of correction, do we harshly rebuke them when their only crime is to fail to meet our expectations.

When we love Christ our focus will be His will in our life and the lives of those we love. We will desire their good over our pleasure. We will rejoice when our friends obey God and weep when they disobey Him.

We will encourage our friends with all aspects of God's love. When patience is required we will do that according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. When a spanking is needed we will obey the Holy Spirit and administer correction. The goal is to help our friends to see God's will and not ours. Our goal is to help our friends to become more holy and to let them administer the same kind of love to us.

Relationships are not based on superficial enjoyment of life, but on mutual growth, working through problems and desiring reconciliation. To run from a problem simply to avoid conflict is not Christ like.

There are times when we draw back from a friend, because we see the hostility in their hearts and we can not get them to listen until the Lord has broken their hearts and prepared them for the message. The prodigal son is a picture of this. The Father loved his son, but saw that attempting to talk him out of his foolishness was an exercise in futility, so he gave his son what he wanted and left him in the Lord's hands.

We have little faith when we think we have to do something to fix a matter. Greater faith is exhibited when we step back, trust the Lord and remain in prayer.

I was grateful the day the Lord imparted this principle to me. The burden of having to continually explain myself to someone who would not listen was removed and I walk in freedom. I desire that same freedom for others who find themselves in relationships that seem impossible. God can do it better than we can and sometimes, even more often these days, we must step out of God's way to let Him work.

We live in a rebellious, arrogant society that mocks the wisdom of their elders and curses their father and their mother. Proverbs 30:11 "There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in it's own eyes, Yet it is not washed from its' filthiness."

The Lord told us this would happen in the end times when He said in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such turn away."

This is a sorrowful verse, because of its implications for our lives. Many many people who did the best they could to raise their children to love Christ, in their imperfections they still loved Him, but their children are loving their fun, freedom and self righteousness more than they love God , and I am not describing the non-believer, but the believing children. They have lost their way because the pull of the world has been too strong and they have created in their hearts a god of their own making. A god of indulgence, pride and disregard for anyone but themselves.
 
Our only hope and our best hope is that the Lord do a mighty work in their hearts, that He take them through whatever is necessary to show them their wickedness and cause them to bend their knee to a holy God in repentance.

Keep looking up, He is coming soon and very soon!