We live in such a troubled world with so many things going wrong that it is exceedingly difficult at times to cope. In fact the leading mental illness is stress with billions spent treating it annually and in spite of the best drugs and therapy treatments that man can devise, the suicide rate, addiction to mind altering substances, cutting and self-mutilation and other ills of our modern society have never been higher.
There is a non-secular solution but few take advantage of it. The solution is to turn to God. God doesn’t want us to feel worried and stressed out. He loves us beyond comprehension and communicates His love and His reassurance that we are in His perpetual care several ways. We tell Him our needs and problems via prayer and His loving response comes back to us sometimes in a small still voice that generally can be felt more than heard, and on rare occasions even by direct revelation where we can clearly hear God’s voice, or by dreams and visions. However God’s preferred method of communicating with us is through His Holy Word the Bible and that is where you will find God and where He will speak directly to you.
Sounds simple eh? Well apparently it’s not. According to an exhaustive study by Barna only 9% of evangelicals have a biblical worldview much less the rest of our struggling world. Biblical worldview is simply a big word that indicates that we believe the Bible to be the inerrant holy inspired word of God. Forty percent of evangelicals don’t even believe in satan much less concepts of sin, redemption or whatever.
Our Creator who the Bible states has individual names for six hundred billion trillion stars and an intellect that we cannot even begin to imagine decided how He would communicate with us in a manner that we could understand before the creation of the world. He had it written for us in simple terms that describe in detail how to not only survive in this sin-filled world, but to thrive. So over a period of some 1500 years He chose some 40 men, located on three continents with varying cultures, who spoke 3 different languages (Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew), and inspired them to precisely author His Holy Bible according to the words He dictated for them. Today it is still the best-selling book and billions of copies are sold and distributed free annually, but as mentioned only a small segment of society bother to even open it once a month much less daily. Young people are the hardest hit because their parents did not instill daily Bible reading into their lives whereby they could get into lifelong habits that would guide them down the right paths.
I cannot over-emphasize how important it is to read the Bible. Bible study classes are good and help with understanding and individual books and commentary are as well; however the Bible states that God speaks directly to us as we read it for ourselves. The following statement found in Hebrews explains why the world is suffering: God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. For this good news — that God has prepared this rest — has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. For only we who believe can enter his rest.
Reread that last sentence: For only we who believe can enter his rest.
The way we believe is to read the Bible daily; otherwise we don’t know what to believe. Pick a time, (I like first thing in the morning because at least I can start off on a good footing). Read the Bible; listen to God. Watch for things that leap out at you and seem to be exactly what you needed to hear. That’s God talking to you. Act on His advice.
Understand that the Bible is alive! (For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.)
God resides within the covers of His Bible and He is just waiting to give you His rest and love and reassurance. In His Bible Jesus said not to worry and then goes on to assure us that we are important to Him and even the very hairs on our heads are numbered by Him. We are in fact so important to Him and He loves us so much that He left his heavenly throne and died for us. If He does all of this, it seems the least we could do is read His word and converse with Him daily.
Start today. Just read and listen to God. You will find that Jesus Christ who is God is full of mercy and love is sympathetic to everything we face, and importantly has the perfect, pure, and wholesome solution to any problem including the one that is bugging you right now. Selah . . .
Hebrews 4:14
So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
April 26, 2016 – Click here to listen