Looking Both Ways for the Glory of God

January, 2010

by: Jack Hughes

The new year is upon us again! It seems the older I get, the more I want to get done for the Lord, the harder I work, and the faster the years go by. Things in the world don’t look good. Immorality, crime, corruption, and evil are on the rise. The future economy looks bleak. The International Herald Tribune in a nearly prophetic article that appeared June 15th, 2006 said:

The rise of the Christian right has made many, in Europe in particular, doubt whether a majority still shares America's founding commitment to the secular principles of the Enlightenment. Seized by the marketing machine, Hollywood entertainment has, with ever fewer exceptions, hewn to the blockbuster formula of action, violence, sex and special effects…

In a recent Gallup Poll of 8,000 women in Muslim countries, the overwhelming majority cited “attachment to spiritual and moral values” as the best aspect of their own societies while the most common answer to the question about what they admired least in the West was “moral decay, promiscuity and pornography” that pollsters called “the Hollywood image.”

This is also the view of many parents in the United States, no doubt including those who swell the megachurch congregations on Sunday morning and then mysteriously morph into the audience for “Desperate Housewives” on Sunday night.

Times are unarguably bad, for the world and for the worldly churches that sprinkle the globe. These realities can tempt us to fall into a number of ungodly responses which I would like to consider in this Review.

Glorifying the Past–A Form of Sneaky Discontent

When hard times come, some people look back to the “good old days.” Longing for something else, they fail to remember the bad in “good old days.” I remember my dad saying on more than one occasion, “In the depression you could buy a loaf of bread for a nickel!” True, but most didn’t have a nickel. The economy had pancaked and a nickel was enough to buy a loaf of bread. When we don’t like where we are in our lives or what is happening in the world we can glorify the past for comfort. “When I was a kid…” “It used to be that a person could …” “Before … people could …” Fill in the blanks yourself. You know what I am talking about. We all do it. We glorify the past because we are discontent with our present circumstances.

Of course the God glorifying response is to be content. Some think of contentment as having no goals, ambition, or desire to better oneself or improve one’s financial situation. Yet this is a misunderstanding of what it means to be content. The Bible speaks of planning, working hard, being a wise steward, being diligent, etc. Being content is not a synonym for complacency. Contentment is to accept with joy and thanksgiving whatever God has given you today. Yes, you can have plans and goals and strive for them, but if they don’t come to pass, you accept with joy and thanksgiving whatever God has given you today. You may try to make more money, get a better job, scrimp and save, start a business, but utterly fail. Yet you accept with joy and thanksgiving whatever God has given you today.

John the Baptist told the soldiers who came to him to be baptized, “be content with your wages,” (Lk. 3:14). Paul, after speaking of his trials and weaknesses said in II Cor. 12:10, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul said in Phil. 4:11, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” This didn’t mean Paul didn’t have any goals or desires. He constantly talks about them in letters, but whatever God gave him he accepted with joy and thanksgiving. Keep in mind, Paul was stoned, received the 39 lashes on several occasions, was ship wrecked, thrown in prison for years, suffered great trials, and yet learned “the secret” of being content. And what do you suppose is “the secret” of being content? He tells us in the very next verse, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” The “secret” is Jesus Christ! When times are tough and life is hard, we turn to Jesus who gives us the grace and strength we need to be content in any circumstance. Don’t run to the past for comfort from trials, run to Jesus!

Dwelling on Past Failures

Another practice to avoid is dwelling on past failures. While some glorify the past, others add insult to injury and dwell on their past failures. Discouraged and thwarted we look to the past and conjure up as many failures as we can in an attempt to do penance and atone for our own sin. Satan loves this! Its like giving him permission to kick you when you are down. Satan shoots us with an arrow of temptation, we sin, confess it to God, and He graciously removes it. But if we dwell on our past failures, its like handing the arrow back to Satan over and over again so he can keep shooting us with it.

Dwelling on past failures is wrong because it is to deny the forgiveness we have in Christ. It is to think and act like God’s grace isn’t sufficient for us. Jesus addressing this in Lk. 9:62 said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Just as a farmer, looking back while plowing, will make crooked furrows, so a Christian looking back at past failures will go crooked in their walk with the Lord. This is why Paul, unable to achieve perfection in this life, said in Phil. 3:13, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” We are all great sinners and have plenty of sins in our pasts to regret, but let us not dwell on those sins that Christ shed his blood to forgive. Dwelling on past failures will cause us to be thrown into Doubting Castle to be mercilessly beaten by Giant Despair. Therefore when Satan whispers in our ear and reminds us of our past failures, we must tell ourselves the truth about what Christ has done for us or we will remain in the clutches of Giant Despair.

Fretting Over the Future

Another sinful response to hard times and trials is to fret over what we fear the future might bring. Fretting is a close relative to worry and anxiety. All of these responses are sinful. They are sinful because in worrying we deny the sovereignty and goodness of God. God is absolutely sovereign. His will is perfect. He knows the future. He knows what is best for us. He has promised to cause all things to work together for our good (Rom. 8:28). When we see the world falling apart, evil increasing, the economy decreasing, and fret, worry, or grow anxious, we deny God. We refuse to believe the truth that He is who He has promised in His Word.

In Mt. 6:25-34 Jesus has a long discussion about worry and anxiety. He gives the command in vs. 25, “do not be worried about your life.” He mentions the basic necessities we need to live, like food and clothing. He explains that God takes care of birds and clothes perishing flowers of the field in fine raiment. Therefore we need not worry about God taking care of us for we are far more valuable to Him than birds and flowers. Our job is to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness and God has promised that everything else will be given to us.

Presuming Upon Your Earthly Future

Another sinful response we can have to hard times is to place our hope in our efforts, government, a positive attitude that our economy, our country or the world, will get better. Presumption too is a sin. James says in Jam. 4:13, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”

There is nothing wrong with placing our hope in the promises of God or the Lord Himself, but not in ourselves, our government, our economy or the world. Jesus said in Lk. 17:26-30, right before His second coming things will be like they were in the days of Noah and the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. In both cases wickedness and evil were pervasive. Paul affirms this in II Tim. 3:1-5 where he writes, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” Sounds like our world!

Jesus also spoke of wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, tribulation, persecution, and satanic deception. He said these things “must take place” (Mt. 24:6). This is a scary thought, if your hope is in this world, but if you are looking for a country whose architect and builder is God, you can have peace in a wicked world (Heb. 11:10; II Cor. 4:17). Jesus has told us what the future holds. It will get worse before it gets better.

A Plan of Attack for Coping with Hard Times

Here is a four-step solution to remaining calm in times of trial.

First, pray.

Paul says in Phil. 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We are commanded not to be anxious, but to turn to God in prayer and as we remind ourselves who God is, God will give us His peace which will guard both our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Second, know the times.

The Bible tells us about the future and it is always right. We need to be careful not to turn every event in the newspaper into a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, but must not neglect prophecy either. When we know what will happen, it will keep us from being surprised, caught off guard. A huge earthquake strikes and we instantly remember that Jesus said, “There will be earthquakes.” We read of another war or the possibility of a war, and we remember Jesus said, “there will be wars and rumors of wars.” Prophecy is given to us for encouragement and hope. Don’t neglect it. Yes, some of it is hard to understand, but what is clear is that hard times are a precursor to the Rapture and the glorious Second Coming of Christ to earth!

Third, look back and consider the faithfulness of God.

Remind yourself of how He rescued Noah, Lot, the Israelites from Egypt, from starvation and thirst in the desert. Remember how God has always protected, provided for, watched out for those who were His, even in very hard times. He will do the same for you!

Fourth and finally, remember the promises of God

Promises like Psa. 37:25, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” Or Jesus’ comforting words in Mt. 28:20, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The author of Hebrews reminds us to be content with whatever the Lord has given us. Quoting Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:5; and I Chron. 28:20, he says in Heb. 13:5, “being content with what you have; for He himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” No matter how hard times may get, we can know with certainly, God will never forsake us!