Believe it or not, you are surrounded. You are surrounded by ideas, by influences and by people. And you are surrounded by spiritual forces working for your good and for your destruction.
There is a battle being fought for your heart and mind every single day that you live on this planet. Some of this you are aware of and some of it is out of the realm of your perception. The goal, however, remains the same: your allegiance.
We’ve been given the awesome gift and responsibility of free will. Choosing Jesus and placing ourselves under His Lordship creates a great force and influence for good. Human beings who humbly submit themselves to Him and repent from their sins can be used in mighty ways to the glory of God and to the great blessing of others.
The opposite is also true. Choosing a life of selfishness, gratification and adherence to the god of this world creates painful consequences and ruined lives. Sin is sweet for a season but the ultimate fruition is much worse than the brief pleasure that it brings. Choosing such a life creates a force and influence for evil, always to the detriment of everyone it touches.
We human beings are easily influenced and will model what we have been taught and what we have seen in others. And what are we seeing all around us right now? Lives destroyed by adultery, poverty, drugs, greed and every sin under the sun. Consider this:
“What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” C.S. Lewis
With so much evil receiving so much attention and glorification in this world we have never needed each other more than we do right now. I desperately need to see Christ in those around me and those around me need to see Christ in me. We must make it a priority to lift each other up in every way that we can and to show God’s love every opportunity that we get.
“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” (Galations 6:10 NASB)
The apostle Paul knew the importance of this and he exhorted the Galatians to take make the most of every single opportunity they were given to love each other. In doing so they would act as visible examples of God’s love and grace to those who needed that encouragement the most; their brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is no different for us today. We are hard pressed by our enemy and we need every ally that we can get in this fight for good. By your decision to take a stand for what is right and live a life that visibly glorifies God, you may be the light that helps an ailing brother or sister find their way back home. Your witness will be the blessing that God uses to strengthen and encourage those around you and to ultimately edify the body of Christ.
We must stand together. We must pray together. We must love each other as Christ first loved us and we must be lights first to each other and then unto the whole world.
Important post Matthew. I love the story when the 4 friends tore through the roof to lower their paralyzed friend down to Jesus. When Jesus saw the faith of the 4 friends he forgave the sins of the man. Some days we need to borrow some faith from those around us.