Keep in Mind

Nowadays, there is so much going on in the world that is troubling for me and I suppose many others. We are watching our government try to micro-manage the country and ultimately the citizens of the United States. We see the oppression of Christians through reverse discrimination as we see every other religion and public venue being allowed to tout their opinions, but Christians are not. We are watching prayer be removed from public society little by little. The very values our nation was built on are now being ruled out by the bills we witness Congress passing. Our educational system is bottoming out, no matter how much money the government throws at it. The divorce rate is at it's highest ever, and the traditional family no longer exists. Children aren't being raised by their parents, but are being raised by the schools they attend. Babies are being killed because of irresponsible individuals who sacrifice them on the altar of selfishness. War seems to be on the horizon. Every day we hear about another country that is angry and is ready to take action to incite some kind of confrontation. We see so much violence, pain, suffering, and fear in the world today. All you have to do is turn on the news to know all of this.

And in response to all that makes us angry and disillusioned, we find ourselves pointing fingers at somebody, anybody. Sometimes it's individuals, or political groups, or at the world's leaders, or as a last resort, the wealthy. It is so easy to find a scapegoat and complain that he/she/they is/are the reason for all the woes in a specific domain. It is so easy to direct our accusations at them because of what we observe them doing and what we speculate they are scheming. Take, for example, Obama. We see Obama making all these decisions that seem in direct opposition to what the majority wants, and it is easy to say, "He's an idiot!", "He's ruining the United States!", or "He's trying to make us a communist country!" In many cases, these may be true accusations. However, today, I encourage you to see him and others like him as just mere pawns in a huge conspiracy that is taking place and has been for centuries.

In Ephesians 6:12, Paul encourages the Ephesians to remember that we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against the evil forces of darkness. Like the Ephesians, we have to keep in mind that the world is a stage for the powers of good and evil. That is, God vs. Satan. God is on a mission to save us, and Satan is on a mission to destroy us. Just as God uses people to spread the gospel, Satan also uses people to destroy.

The reason I am highlighting this fact is that if we are to fight back, our number one strategy must be prayer. We have to remember that there are supernatural forces at work, and that supernatural weapons are needed to do battle. We need to recognize that the people that are being used in this war are just the surface of the problem. If we want to treat the corruption, we must fight the source of the problem and not just the observable issues that come from that source.

It would be like looking at a piece of fruit that has a rotten spot, and only treating that spot even though the rot has been caused by a worm inside the fruit. We can cut out the rotten spot, but as long as the worm has free reign in the fruit, the fruit will still eventually spoil. Our efforts, although good intentioned, will be fruitless. We have to destroy the worm if we are going to salvage what we want, that is, the fruit.

So, what I am advocating here today, is that while you may write your politicians, hold gatherings to get people more aware of today's issues, write the newspaper, and send chain e-mails about the ills of the world, remember that your first line of defense HAS to be prayer if we are going to be truly effective in our cause.