Someone Needs To Care

“They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.” (Jer 12:11 AV)

Paul said something similar in Philippians 2:20. “For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.” (Php 2:20 AV) In Philippians, the concern was a bit different.  Paul could not think of someone who would naturally care.  In other words, he could not think of someone who would have a burden because of mutual background, need, or culture.  Paul’s statement was not a statement against callousness.  Rather, the LORD would need to raise someone up who’s nature it would be to care for this need.  In Jeremiah’s passage, the land lay spiritually desolate because no one cared.  Naturally or otherwise.  In short, for the work of God to flourish, it starts with caring.

I am reminded of David’s words to the armies of Israel when confronted by Goliath.  “Is there not a cause?”  Apathy is the death knell of the church.  We have gotten used to the lack of response from the world and allowed apathy or down right antagonistic attitudes to steal away our passion for the truth.  We have allowed push back from the world to drain us of our passion for the souls of others.  We have given up because we see no immediate results.  We are reminded of the good Samaritan.  What made him different was he was willing to look at a need and lay it to heart.  Caring is not something for which we are absolved if we do not feel it.  Caring is something that we choose to feel or not feel.  Like any emotion, it can be exercised or ignored.  Just like lust, envy, compassion, or joy.  These are emotions that sometimes come naturally, but at other times, can be exercised at will.

Churches are declining all across the board.  It is not a United States problem.  It is not a European problem.  It is a world-wide problem.  We are dying because we are not laying it to heart.  Our lives are filled with the temporary blessings of this life.  Our families, recreation, the pursuit of happiness; as those goals are the highest to attain.  But these things will not last.  They are temporary.  Only the spiritual will last.  And no man layeth to heart.  It is not the attacks of the devil.  There were far more in the first century of the church, yet they grew.  It is not our busy lives.  We have more inventions to make our lives easier and more convenient.  It is not even the rejection of the gospel.  Mankind has been doing that since Abels’ time.  It is simply that no man layeth it to heart.  If we are to see revival, we have to care.  Period.