2 Sam 12:13-15
And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die." Then Nathan departed to his house.
2 Sam 12:15-17
And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.
2 Sam 12:19-23
When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?"
And they said, "He is dead."
So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, "What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food."
And he said, "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said,'Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?'
I was recently at a meeting with some men from our church and the topic came up about the world and how it was just getting worse and more obscenely bold, like with coffee stands with barely clothed barista's in plain site of the general public. Causing some men to actually change the course of their drive to and from work to avoid such temptations and at that only to be confronted with billboards from lingerie stores or beer ads staring them down. It was then discussed about the older generation of Christians who seem to have given up, saying that "the world is not going to get any better in fact its only getting worse."
Well I happen to be in that weird place of being in the middle of both age groups where I can see the older point of view, "there is not much that can be done at this point, the world is going to hell in a hand basket" and on the flip side I see the younger generations point "why aren't we doing something about it?"
Its times like this that I'm glad that we have the bible to show us the right approach. I believe that approach is prayer and and an urgent heart.
The bible clearly points out in
2 Tim 3:1-9
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
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So there should be no surprise about the condition of the world today in fact I see it as getting worse day by day and unfortunately we haven't seen anything yet. Just look at what we view on TV as compared to what we watched 20 years ago...even 10. The enemy clearly has people right where he wants them, slipping into a numb state so that they wont even know what hit them when its to late.
So what does that mean for a Christian man or woman, just trying to live each day keeping their children safe and pure in this society as well as keeping themselves pure for the Lord? We heard at the meeting about these coffee stands going up in neighborhoods near bus stops and even schools, and how Christians were rallying to get them removed seemingly to no avail and then people just seem to give up from weariness and lack of interest. People getting discouraged when the city officials don't bar the doors of these places right away or pass a law that bans them from setting up at all. Does that mean we stop praying? Certainly not! I have seen and heard of so many times that after much prayer business just seemed to drop or something random happens to the place. It our job to continually pray 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says pray without ceasing. Our opening scripture shows just such a case, where David knew what the Lord had spoken over his son and knew more than likely he would die, but he prayed and fasted just the same until he did in fact die, and when questioned he says. "what if the Lord would have relented?" What if God would have heard my plea and changed His mind as a result? At least he tried. I believe that he in fact believed that God could have changed the course. In that case He did not, but how many times have you seen the Lord stop something that was inevitable? How many times have you seen the lord do the impossible?
James 5:16-18
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
NKJV
How bad do you want to see something happen, or be moved? What are you willing to pay?
Today we live in a microwave society, where everything happens at the speed of light and so if we don't see instant results we give up and wait for the next thing that frustrates us and we give up again. We need to remember that the devil is fighting for the same plot of ground we are, be it a coffee stand, a billboard, a strip club or night club and what we are seeing now is the people the devil has rallied coming out on top because we haven't stood our ground and prayed as we ought.
We also see in the book of Acts the lack of faith in our prayer;
Acts 12:5-6
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
Acts 12:12-17
So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter's voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. But they said to her, "You are beside yourself!" Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, "It is his angel."
Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
NKJV
I have always chuckled at this scripture, They had been praying for his release but didn't really have faith that it could happen.
Is there something in your life that you have prayed for and have since given up or are still praying but at the end of the prayer your heart says "well I don't think it will be"?
STOP IT!
The very word of God says that you have not because you ask not, or you ask amiss
James 4:2-3
Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
NKJV
But it also says;
John 14:13-14
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
NKJV
That is powerful stuff right there! No we cannot stop the world from turning as the song from Sanctus Real points out so clearly, but we can keep on turning to Him. We need to be urgent in our prayers, urgent in our witnessing and urgent in our proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Savior to the people at the mall, in our neighborhood, at work and to the world.
Don't grow weary and lose heart;
Gal 6:9-10
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
NKJV
2 Thess 3:13-14
But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good.
NKJV
Heb 12:3-4
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
NKJV
The Church is here to proclaim the name of the Lord to the ends of the earth until He comes back, so as long as you have breath and energy to go out and fight than fight we should do just that.
The world will continue to get more depraved and sick, but don't lose heart! We have a God who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins, and as the world gets worse and the Lords time draws closer more and more people are perishing right in front of us for our lack of faith in our prayers and in effect lack of faith in our God.
Each day another young man gets lured into a life of sexual sin because just one of us didn't have the faith to keep praying for the coffee stand to be closed or the billboard to come down. It seems almost laughable when you put it like that but think about it. Its one step at a time, its a slow fade as the song states. It starts one glance, one drink, one puff or one shot you name the sin or addiction and it never started full on, it was a process.
My encouragement in this is that whether you are a mom, dad, son or daughter, worker, minister, pastor or a youth pastor we all have one job in common, Its prayer and more prayer after that. Don't get complacent, don't get discouraged the things of this world will fade away but the word of The Lord will never fade.
Ps 9:6-8
O enemy, destructions are finished forever!
And you have destroyed cities;
Even their memory has perished.
But the Lord shall endure forever;
He has prepared His throne for judgment.
He shall judge the world in righteousness,
And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.
NKJV
Pray each day with the faith that God will do an amazing work right before your eyes. Pray over your neighborhoods, schools,and our cities that Gods will would be done and when you see a bikini coffee stand going up begin to pray it down when you are seeing things in the news that you know don't honor the Lord and even bring shame to the christian name, pray. And encourage others to pray with you. Get with your community of believers and pray and believe the lord will hear you. I am hearing of community centers like the YMCA having prayer meetings for people to come and pray over their communities. That sounds like an awesome opportunity to gather in faith.
Matt 18:20
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
NKJV
We all should have one common goal, that is to see the lost come to Christ until the Lord comes back. How the Lord works that out in you, I don't know, but I do know it begins with faith, so don't give up.
May God richly bless you indeed
Mark
