Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.” – Jeremiah 18:7-8

As Christians, our primary citizenship is in heaven. Nonetheless, it is biblical and appropriate to pray for and pursue what’s best for our earthly home as long as it doesn’t conflict with our Kingdom work. While we certainly cannot say whether God has decreed destruction for this country, there seems to be no shortage of disaster right now and we should take that seriously!

What’s best for any earthly nation is to turn away from evil, to reject policies and elements of culture that rebel against God’s revealed will in the Bible, and to embrace the Lord. Therefore, let us pray for an awakening in this nation, a great turning away from the false gods of self, greed, and pleasure, and a turning toward Jesus Christ. Let us pray for the hearts of parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters to be renewed in love and turn toward each other. Let us pray for the widespread embrace and practice of biblical love, kindness, justice, and mercy. Let us pray for a viral pursuit of personal holiness.

None of this is about imposing our values on others. Rather let our prayer be for hearts to truly change and with them values, priorities, words, and actions.

“This is what the Lord says:
Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind.
He makes human flesh his strength,
and his heart turns from the Lord.”
– Jeremiah 17:5

Consider this a helpful reminder from God during this charged political season! There are certainly important issues being debated and every vote matters. Christians should be thoughtfully and prayerfully engaged. However, regardless of who you vote for, he or she won’t solve all the problems you imagine they will. He or she won’t cure every evil surrounding us. Likewise the other candidate, who may or may not do terrible things, won’t usher in the end of the world, because only God can do that!

Our strength and hope is in Jesus Christ. He and He alone WILL fix everything wrong with this world. His Kingdom alone will be perfectly just. When He returns, all evil will be washed away, sinners judged, and justice administered. In the meantime we must be careful stewards of the world God has given us dominion over. Nonetheless, whether you vote for the donkey or the elephant, always remember that our hope is in the Lamb. Choose Jesus the Lamb every day of your life with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength!

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” – Colossians 3:12

This is what our world and this nation desperately needs right now: millions of Christians acting like Jesus every single day!!! Paul commands us to put on the character of Christ in all our daily interactions. As followers of Jesus, we must not be content with merely having deep or enjoyable worship on Sunday mornings. We’re actually called and commanded to imitate Jesus – to be like Him in our thoughts, words, and actions.

Many of the present-day difficulties of the Western church stem from a failure of Christians to think, speak, and act like Jesus. Friends, we need to get back to basics. If Jesus is your Lord, act like Him!

We must be trying, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to be compassionate toward everyone, kind in the face of unkindness, humble (i.e. not arrogant, not a know-it-all, not holier-than-thou), absolutely firm yet gentle and non-combative in our firmness, and endlessly patient with others as Jesus is endlessly patient with us.

These are the things we must fill our hearts, minds, and mouths with. To make room for them, we’re told in verse 8 to completely get rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk. At all times. In all places. And we can’t lie. Not on purpose and not accidentally because we failed to spend a minute fact checking the latest outrageous social media post we wanted to repost/retweet.

This is a very hard challenge, but if we’re faithful to do it, we will be obedient to our Lord and those who don’t know Christ will see and hear Him through us!

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” – Colossians 2:6-7

Receiving Christ – putting your trust and faith in Him as Lord – is meant to be the beginning of an incredible lifelong adventure! Our moment of salvation is the start, not the finish line. We don’t just get saved by Jesus, we are to “walk in Him”. We must live every moment, of every day, of every month, of every year in Christ, honoring Him, reflecting His goodness, kindness, righteousness, holiness, mercy, justice, and grace.

We must seek to become more and more like Jesus is EVERYTHING we do (work, school, marriage, parenting, neighboring, etc). We must be rooted in Him, learning and growing in Him, and most important, being like Him.

We can’t be one person on Sunday morning and a different person the rest of the week. Everyone we encounter should see Christ in us every time. This isn’t a chore or burden, it’s the delight of having the Living God within us as He is. For this privilege of walking in Christ 24×7 we give thanks more and more!

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” – Philippians 4:8

Philippians chapter 4 provides wonderful advice on how to cope during difficult times. Verses 6 and 7 tell us to turn all our anxieties over to the Lord in prayer and experience the supernatural and incomprehensible peace of God no matter our circumstances. We could all use more of that right now!

Then Paul says to replace the overwhelming thoughts about our fears, anxieties, problems, and negativity by thinking about the good. We live in an age dominated by bad news. Partly that’s because there are truly bad things going on in the world. Partly that’s because bad news and outrage are good for ratings. Thus we easily get overwhelmed by the endless bad news cycle of TV, print, and internet media.

While we shouldn’t ignore the problems of our world (after all, Christians are to be salt and light in our culture working to heal these evils), we also shouldn’t spend every waking moment thinking about them as our thoughts spiral downward in despair or ratchet upward in outrage. We must instead discipline our minds to contemplate the good things God has blessed our world and our lives with.

God is the source of all truth, so contemplate what is true, particularly the Bible, rather than the rampant falsehoods of our post-truth culture. God is a God of honor, justice, purity, beauty, and excellence and the author of these things. Contemplate Him, contemplate them, contemplate the honorable people and things of the world, celebrate the justice of Christ’s cross, the beauty of God’s creation, the excellence that flows out of His creation and the human bearing of His image.

There is much good to think about. There truly is. We just have to work harder than in the past to see it. Think about these things! Make that effort and discover the peace that comes from a mind disciplined to look upward rather than downward.