So… What Should I Do!!??

 

I think that we all can agree that the year 2020 has been the suckiest, strangest, life changing, unprecedented and traumatic year EVER… well, at least in my life time anyway!! It has been a year that just keeps on “giving” whether we wanted it to or not and, of course, it is not letting up in its ending either. And I have this sneaky suspicion that 2021 isn’t going to get any better. With all of this upheaval, in so many ways and on so many levels, many people are not quite sure what to do with it all! I have had a couple conversations with friends recently about this and the question keeps coming up “What should I do!!? Do we just sit around and LET this stuff happen? Do we protest? Do we write letters and sign petitions!?? We are Americans and we need to fight for our rights and our country! What can we do that will make a difference!!??” These are all very good questions especially with the huge political divide, the civil unrest and the natural disasters along with COVID related issues to contend with, i.e., business shut downs, enforced quarantines, vaccine controversies and the devastated economy. The world seems to be heading into a terrible nose dive and I think we all want to DO something about it!

So…What should I do!?

If you are a Christian, I think the answer is probably very different than what you think it is. It just feels so WRONG to sit and watch all of this crazy stuff happen but at the same time we are feeling “helpless” to change or do anything that will have an impact… This may be how you are feeling too. But I believe there is an answer and there are definitely things we need to be doing, but with my experience with God, it will be very counter intuitive and not at all what you think it will be.

First of all, if you are in prayer, seeking God’s face for direction, and He gives you clear instructions, then you definitely need to do whatever He is leading you to do! HE is our ultimate authority and if we are looking to Him to guide us, which we should be, He will do just that. If He is leading you to protest, write letters, picket or sign petitions, then by all means go for it. But, in the event that you are not getting any clear directions from Him, then we need to do what we KNOW He wants us to do and what He last told us to do. Just as a caution here, I coach women all the time to NOT make any emotional, knee jerk decision based on fear, anger, anxiety, guilt or shame. So, if you say something like, “I am doing this because I am afraid….” or “I am doing this because I am so angry…” or “I am doing this because someone will think I am…” Then, you most likely should not be doing it. Emotional reactions rarely go well. Wait for the Lord and His peace and a confidence that only God can give. But waiting is SO hard for us, in this world of instant gratification, isn’t it!!? 

So… What should I do!?

Our first and most powerful tool is prayer. But we need to pray the way the Lord instructed us to pray; “This, then, is how you should pray:  'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” Mathew 6:9-10

The key words being “YOUR will be done…” I have found in my journey with the Lord that I truly have NO clue what God’s will is in most of my circumstances!! I like things to be “easy” and “painless” but I have discovered that my temporal perspective typically doesn’t match up with God’s “eternal” perspective!! He is MUCH more interested in HIS plan than in my comfort! LOL! I tend to pray against things that seem “bad” for me or others, but later I find out that those are the very things HE WANTED to happen because HIS glory was revealed! Just a quick and poignant example, God’s redemption of mankind didn’t go ANYTHING like how the disciples thought it would go!! The LAST thing they envisioned their Lord and King doing to save them was to suffer and die on the cross and be raised from the dead in three days!! Never in their wildest dreams could they come up with that scenario! And neither can we! But that is what God did, and it was not only good, it was perfect! In fact, I have learned that, in my lack of understanding, I could very well be praying against what God’s good and perfect will is. Maybe this is why he instructed us to pray that “HIS will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and not ours?

Here is a good scripture that comes to mind:

“Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Act 5:38-39. That is a crazy thought, isn’t it? To find yourself fighting against God?? I think we do that more often than we think we do. 

In Ephesians it tells us to put the full armor of God on but the funny thing is, he doesn’t tell us to “fight”! “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then…” Ephesians 6:13-14. He tells us to do everything to STAND, and STAND firm!! Counter intuitive?? Yep!! I believe he is saying, gear up, get your mind right and stand firm in the victory that He has already won for the KINGDOM… not the world.

So… What should I do!?

I have 5 LIFE verses that have helped me in keeping my focus on what I truly believe God wants me to do at all times and what my focus should be on:

1.   “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well…” Matthew 6:33

2.   “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5

3.   “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

4.   “Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” Matthew 22:37

5.   “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

These verses are not in any particular order, but they are the verses that keep my eyes on HIM and help me to trust Him with anything and everything that is going on in my life and in the world (please note; I certainly don’t claim to have arrived in this area!). It may seem like I am doing “nothing” but I am doing one of the hardest things I can do, which is seeking, waiting and abiding, and then obeying. For me it is SO much easier to go DO something!! Oswald Chambers says “If we have the right relationship with God, our ministry to Him happens as naturally as breathing”. But the FIRST step is our “right relationship” to Him. We will be helpless, powerless and ineffective otherwise.

I can throw in another scripture for good measure;

“Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42

I have spent most of my life being a “Martha”, being worried and upset about many things. But now I am striving to be a “Mary”, sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to every word that comes from his mouth and then being a servant to His Words.

So… What should I do!?

I had this rather large thought the other day; if Christians are worried and fearful about what is going on in the world, doesn’t that reveal a deeper heart issue? If there is more fear in us than faith, isn’t that saying in effect that we feel like Satan, the ruler of this world, is bigger, stronger and more powerful than God is? Think about that for a second. If we truly believed and had faith and trusted in God and HIS plan, the faith that God is asking us to have, then why would there be any fear in us at all?? What can possibly happen that He, the creator of the earth and universe, the Almighty God, the King of Glory, the Alpha and the Omega, does not already know about, allow and made provision for?? Even Jesus told Pilate: “Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." John 19:11

I work on the premise that if it isn’t supposed to happen, it’s not going to happen. And if it IS supposed to happen, it will. For example, I believe that God puts in place the leaders that HE wants, regardless of what I think of them. Does that sound too fatalistic or crazy? Here is a good scripture to help with this: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves...” Romans 13:1-3. We may not LIKE the people that are placed in office but if God put them there, there must be a really good reason for it… and His plan is always GOOD and PERFECT, for HIS Kingdom purposes and maybe not necessarily the way we think it should go… That is my thought anyway.

While we don’t want to just stand by and watch our country and world be systematically destroyed, we NEED to make sure that we are fighting the RIGHT battles in the right way, in FAITH and not in fear, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. In looking at what Jesus did, he did not fight the way the world fights “Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." John 18:36. 

Again in the Ephesians 6 scripture he tells us to stand firm and here is another great scripture, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 This scripture is saying our battles are in our hearts and our minds!! To demolish anything that sets itself up against the KNOWLEDGE of God, and to take our thoughts and make them obedient to Christ! Our focus needs to be on the KINGDOM battles, not the world’s battles, right? But the cool part about this is, when we do this, the world DOES get a positive impact! We can accomplish SO much more if we keep our eyes on God than on earth and its problems. C.S. Lewis says in “Mere Christianity” that the disciples were able to accomplish great things on earth and for the Kingdom because their focus was on heaven. Then he said “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in as well. Aim at earth and you will get neither”. Again, so counter intuitive!

But with that said, I think we need to wrap our minds around the fact that there will be some things that ARE going to happen. Biblically speaking it does say that things are going to go south and this world is going to pass away. So, why are we surprised by these things that have happened in 2020? Honestly, I too have been surprised but I have been more surprised and amazed at the acceleration of the down turn than anything else… It is like the spiritual foot is on the gas pedal and we are speeding down the prophetic road in double time!! Here are some scriptures to confirm this inevitability:

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5

“Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, ' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:4-13

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15

Let’s look at the last scripture in 1 John again! “Do not love the world or anything in the world..” and if you do “…the love of the Father is not in him” And “…The world and its desires pass away...” And didn’t the 2 Timothy scripture sound way too much like what is happening now!?? And did you notice in the Matthew scripture Jesus said? “…but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen…: He is telling us, this world is going to south and there is NOTHING we can do to stop this from happening… we can pray all we want for things to go right and good for this world but, in the end, God’s will is going to be done, not ours. Where there IS power and affect is in the spiritual realm and in the Kingdom of God. So again, what kingdom are we fighting for? The World or God’s Kingdom?

So… What should I do!?

BE THE LIGHT!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God… You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:9-16

Again, we really need to be clear in our own hearts and minds what Kingdom we are fighting for. And once we settle on that, we need to understand that our best, MOST powerful and effective tool is exhibiting the love and light of Christ in this hurting world. But here’s the thing! We can’t give what we don’t have!! We cannot be the light or peacemakers if we are full of anger and fear and are not sitting at the feet of Jesus, loving Him with all of our hearts, seeking him first, fixing our eyes on Him, abiding in Him, trusting him with all of our hearts and leaning NOT on our own understanding. If we aren’t doing those things then we cannot be a conduit of His light, love, grace and mercy. And what this world needs MORE than anything else is light, love, grace and mercy. Not anger, hate, fear and judgment. We need to be ambassadors of God’s Kingdom but if we look more like the world than a servant of Christ no one will pay us any attention. But if we are full of peace and joy in this crazy world right now, people will take notice!!

WE are the only ones we can change! Again, all of this is so counter intuitive! We see that changes need to be made and it doesn’t appear like anyone is doing anything… But if WE are not right, our efforts will be so very futile and we may even be fighting against God himself.

I just have to laugh and say that God is SO cool! I just went to look at today’s “My Utmost for His Highest” and this is what he said today, on December 16, 2020:

Wrestling Before God

Ephesians 6:13,18: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand… And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

You must learn to wrestle against the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer for other people; but to wrestle with God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn't meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (Gen_32:24-25)...

I think Oswald confirms what I have been saying. Fight against the things that hinder your communication and relationship with God, don’t fight against God’s will and then we can have an impact on the world and the Kingdom.

So… What should we do!?

In a nutshell, determine in our hearts where our loyalties are, the world or the Kingdom of God. Then trust in God and His perfect plan, have more faith than fear, fight the spiritual battles by sitting at the feet of Jesus and putting on the full armor of God and stand firm in His victory. And then we can be the light and conduit of Christs love, grace and mercy, allowing Him to work in powerful ways through us to impact the world in a “spiritual” and eternal sense rather than a worldly temporal sense. One day and one person at a time.

Father, we do lift up this world and the crazy situation that is unfolding before us. Please give us wisdom, discernment and clarity as we seek Your Face for guidance and direction. Give us patience and persistence to keep our eyes on YOU and not get distracted and fearful. I pray that we all can have a much greater impact on the world because we are seeking you first and loving you with all of our hearts and trusting You with the rest. Thank you Father that You do have a great and perfect plan that we can allow you to work out through us, again as we surrender our will and embrace Yours. In Jesus name we pray, amen!