I received a phone call from an old friend from a far away country. He lamented the demise of his beloved homeland. In his lifetime he has seen it go from a prosperous nation to a third world country. He loves the Lord’s church there and has no plans to leave the people he has lived around for more than five decades. When I ask about his family, he said, “My brother has moved to England. He misses home, but everything works there.”
Time will tell if my friend’s country returns to its former glory. I pray that it will again be a place where people can live in peace.
However, if there is one thing that history has taught us, it is that the more “everything works” for man, the less he works to please God.
This is nothing new. The Scriptures speak openly about how easy it is for man to forget God and end up suffering the consequences. Sword, plague, pestilence, and famine are common curses imposed upon the rebellious by the Lord. In the Book of Judges, we see Israel repeatedly cycle through the process: “From blessings, to rebellion, to oppression, to repentance, to deliverance, and back to blessings.”
It is a common problem that people only seek to “find out what pleases the Lord” when they find themselves in dire straits. But even then, believing “this is temporary,” or moving to better circumstances, can easily cancel out any sense that God needs to be pleased.
“Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth” (Eph.5:8-9).
John Staiger
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