A Word To the Saints

There is something in the wind for the children of God.  Those that know me and have heard me preach or read much of my writings in various places know that I fully believe that we're nearing the end of time on this earth as we know it.  Soon, the Lord is going to return and there is nothing that can sway me from this belief.  With that comes a biblical fact that I think we often miss.  When the Lord returns, it is because God is judging earth and those that lived in disobedience and unbelief to Him.  BUT FIRST, God will judge His own house.  The house is being judged.  This is exactly why we see ministries falling like leaves off a tree in the fall.  Churches that have leaders in immorality...  churches that have ignored biblical principles of indebtedness...  they are falling every day... big and small.

With judgment...  God's true children will be tested.  These test will be unlike any other test that we go through or have gone through.  I spoke with a friend last night and she was having dreams with much the same theme.  We determined some things and the details aren't important but it was simply God letting them know that He was testing them and this test was going to push them to the limit.  After speaking with them it was time for bed so while I lay there my mind wouldn't shut down as I pondered on this and began to pray.  As I prayed for them, I had another burden come into my mind.  A young lady who I watch often on Twitter.  She's on fire for the Lord and reminds me a lot of me back when I was a young man.  I know where she is coming from and I handled it very poorly back then.  Fortunately, I lived in a time when I was able to handle it poorly and still recover before this day.  These young people today don't have that luxury (for lack of a better word to use to make the point).  

Friends and family members are the greatest tool that Satan has had to use against people from the garden to the present.  God is a God of patterns and recognizing that will help us greatly understand God (as much as man can).  Remember though, Satan apes God and he too is a devil of patterns.  Tactically, using family and friends stand to reason because you love them more and when they seemingly betray you or rag you unmercifully, it hurts worse.  It is when this happens that Satan can really begin to work on you.  The hurt you will ultimately get over as you keep praying for them and loving them regardless of what they did.  Until that time the tactic is no longer the betrayal (once that is clear then that part is over) but it moves into the area of distraction.  If the devil can keep us distracted then it is easy for him to keep us out of the race and out of the race is his ultimate goal for the true believer.

Where distractions become dangerous for the believer is that the distractions can quickly lead us into sin.  That seems odd because you will say, "how can praying for someone become a sin?  How can trying to right a wrong become a sin?  How can justified hurt become a sin?"  It becomes a sin when it brings us into disobedience and if we aren't doing that which God has called us and sent us to do...  we are in disobedience.  Those distractions can consume us...  even our prayers.  We begin to pray about the distraction and we aren't praying for the things more important.  We can't get into the Word...  not really.  We might open our Bible and we might try and read but all the while our mind isn't on those words but on the distraction.  Pretty soon...  the words themselves start speaking to our distraction which causes us to focus even more on the distraction because our heart is in that distraction so much that it consumes all parts of our relationship with God.  

FACT:  Our family will betray us.

FACT:  Our friends will betray us.

FACT:  Satan is our enemy and he is very good at what he does.

FACT:  It is up to us to recognize this and put it down, driving on to what God has before us.

The friends I speak of have two totally different circumstances but in many ways they are the same in that both struggle with distractions.  Here is the good news.  God is God.  Let God be God.  There are battles that we must fight but not every battle is ours.  When it comes to your friends and family we must look towards Jesus Himself and His example.

1 Peter 2:21  For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
22  WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;
23  and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;

Entrust yourself to Him.  Do what you know you are supposed to do.  Let God have this battle...  stand firm and stay on message.  This is what God requires.  Everything is a test and before we move on to the next level with the test that come at that level...  we must pass this test.  I could be corny and make the point by simply asking "what would Jesus do" but you already know the answer as the passage points it out.  Do even better and do what Jesus did and then you will pass the test.