CAN I HEAR IT?
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Genesis 6:8-9
If I have a predominant fear, it is this. I fear that the wickedness of our times will quench the fire of holiness. I feel this so deeply that there was little sleep last night. Tearfully, and quite raw, I am writing this.
Live in a wicked society long enough and it has a numbing effect. Either I will be willing to be lonely for the cause of Christ or my craving for company will make me do whatever it takes to fit in. If my church is asleep, I’ll tone down my zeal to blend in.
There is a cry from some teachers and authors to lay down our lives.
Have you heard it? I have. The cry is desperate, prophet-like. It is unlike the majority of messages being conveyed on Sunday mornings. As my society regresses into lawlessness, as I hear of children shooting parents and toddlers shooting toddlers, the passionate cry for the spreading of the Gospel at all costs is absent. The order of Sunday’s service, and the content and tone of the service, is not calling forth radical disciples. Not enough like Noah are emerging.
I cannot afford to sleep. Will it be said of me that I found favor in the eyes of the Lord? When God sees a world headed for destruction and a generation of Christians anesthetized by pervasive moral decline, will he see me stand apart from the rest? Paul recalls Elijah’s words to the Lord as he despaired over the evil he was witnessing. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Romans 11:2-5
I want to be one of the 7,000. Let my heart burst with the cry of one who wants to be fully awake, watchful, feeling what Jesus feels. I will NOT be popular. I will need the wisdom to know how to manage the anger of being spurned and to discern a holy anger for when I see indifference. And ultimately, I will need to be willing to have my heart broken for the lost, to lay down personal comforts so that God’s call for repentance can be expressed through my tears.
I want to find favor in Your sight. Cause every fiber of my being to react to my world through the eyes of Your Spirit. Amen.
For more from Christine Wyrtzen and Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze, please visit www.daughtersofpromise.org
Originally published Thursday, 25 February 2021.
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