Facing A World That is Falling Apart

“But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.” (1Th 5:8 AV)

Paul is speaking of the end times and the general demeanor that should be our constitution.  Paul mentions soberness, faith, and hope.  Soberness is to be calm and collected in spirit.  It means an even-keeled emotional state.  A state of temperance not thrown about by uncontrolled emotion.  This is good advice regardless of the day and age we live in.  Emotional discipline is in short supply today.  Faith is a belief so strong, one is compelled to act upon it even amid obscurity.  Faith withstands challenges to it.  This is why faith is compared to a breastplate.  A coat of arms that can withstand a dart of doubt from entering the heart.  Faith is that which causes us to take the first step in the right direction.  The helmet protects our thinking.  The hope of eternal life should bring the balance to our thinking that makes the other two commands a bit easier.  The above challenge covers the mind (helmet), will (breastplate), and heart (soberness).  As we approach the second coming of Christ, to do as Paul suggests becomes ever more difficult.  But absolutely necessary.

In our younger parenting days, we did not always show our sons a heart of faith and hope.  Temperance was not always in great supply.  Raising a young family is a very stressful endeavor.  Especially if you do not have a great job with a very good salary and awesome benefits.  Such was our case.  It has been our modus Operandi to live paycheck to paycheck.  At least until our middle-aged years.  When God calls you into His work full-time, finances can often become a struggle.  Our situation was no different.  Add to that the challenges of ministry itself, and one can only imagine the non-stop assault on peace and tranquility in the home.  Too often Mom or Dad would be at the end of our ropes and the boys had to suffer for it.  We didn’t beat them.  We didn’t abuse them.  We didn’t mistreat them.  However, we were not the example of hope and faith that we could have been.  A little bit short-tempered or anxious about bills that were piling up, our sons got what was leftover rather than what our best was for them.  We didn’t respond to trouble as we should have.  Learning how faithful God truly has been becomes the method of building that faith.  Over the years of walking with God, we learn that our problems are nothing in comparison to what God can do.  We learn to trust because God has a track record of getting us through the things that concern us the most.  Over time, the challenge listed above becomes a bit easier to accomplish.

We live in an age where things are changing at warp speed.  Our nation is sliding further and further away from God at an increasing pace.  It has changed so much that I don’t even recognize this world anymore.  There is nothing that remains from my childhood.  The instability of our world seeks to work the same in my own heart and mind.  Panic is all around us.  We see every shred of morality cut and burned.  The consequences of turning our backs on God are coming home to roost.  We can look at all the changes and postulate what tomorrow, next month, or next year might look like.  No politician can fix this mess.  We are too far gone.  The only thing that remains is the coming of Jesus Christ and His rod of iron that will fix all this.  In the meantime, we are challenged to get control of ourselves.  To exercise mental, emotional, and physical discipline in the face of all this turmoil. Oh, and by the way, Paul says to love one another.  The believer who can weather the storm and control his or her being is the one who will draw others to Christ.  As the world is agitated and anxious, the believer who stands in faith, nothing wavering, is the one who will show the way of salvation to a lost world looking for answers.