When the world falls apart around you-

Where is your hope?

There are times when it’s hard to recognize the world we are currently living in.  There are battles raging in our culture calling good evil and wrong right. There are divisions being forced in among us, telling us our identity is a political party, or our race, or denomination. There are wars within my once unified family. I’ve been praying for peace and reconciliation, both in my life and in the world around us. But God has work to do in us first. I have to acknowledge that its possible our former peace was actually the comfort of a self-righteous heart content in its pride. Because God is good, that false peace has been ripped away to make room for something better. Truth.

Every stronghold must fall.

It’s easy to put our faith in what we can see. In a pastor, in a physical church, in our country, in our parents, in the idea that good behavior entitles you to an ideal outcome. We want the peace of knowing, by our sight, or at least by our own logic, that everything is going to be okay. We aren’t all that different from the Jews under Moses, demanding something to worship and have faith in. We are a golden calf culture. We want comfort and we want it now. Instead, many of those places of comfort are falling down around us. The fall has set people at odds with each other and pulled the ties that bind us together to a painful tension. It has made me evaluate my heart and where that pain is coming from. Like a house that’s been through an earthquake, I’m seeing what’s off kilter, what wasn’t strong enough to stand, what needs the power of Christ to be restored. Piece by piece, each item has to be examined and put in its appropriate spot. I’ve found that some things had previously been placed on too high a shelf, given a place of honor that should have been reserved. My heart has to be put in order. Seeking man’s approval before the Lord’s: wrong order. Trusting what a pastor says because he said it, rather than searching the word for myself: wrong order. Please hear me correctly here- absolutely ask questions and seek truth from people with wisdom. Learn everything you can from them and honor them- BUT- do not place them or what they teach on a higher shelf than Jesus Christ and the Bible, the living word of God. Maybe your framework needs fixed and your stuff needs to be rearranged, but the chief cornerstone will remain. You will be rebuilt in due time and according to His standards. Sometimes things have to get shaken up so that order can be restored.

Every stronghold must fall.

But the truth will stand.

The shaking up is not fun. It looks like destruction. It feels like the world is falling apart. It is. But don’t forget that God works ALL things, the good and the bad, according to His purposes, for our good and His glory.

“When it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is a God who hasn’t surrendered His authority.” – A.W. Tozer

Sometimes we need to see the distinction of what is left standing, compared to the rubble on the ground, to know what is really true and important, versus what needs to be removed from our lives. Men and women aren’t perfect. Religious ideology isn’t perfect. Our country isn’t perfect. Our families aren’t perfect. None of these things were meant to be worshipped. Christ alone IS perfect and because of this I can praise God as the sky falls around me. Because though the shaking is hard, He will restore righteousness- and then we’ll have true peace with Him at last.

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