CNN can make you pretty depressed these days. Unemployment has been over 9% almost every month for two years now. The stock market fell 634 points yesterday and it looks like there’s more bad news to come.
What’s interesting is how we associate good times and bad times with money.
In contrast, the Bible
associates a bad time with the kind of people you encounter. It says there will
be “terrible times” and then it gives the list of people you’ll find
during those terrible times. Here are a few of them:
-Lovers of themselves
-Lovers of money
-Not lovers of good
-Lovers of pleasure
In sum, they’ll “have a form of godliness but deny it’s power.” (2 Tim. 3:1-5)
Have you seen a few of those people around? They’re symptomatic of a society going through terrible times.
Yes, the fact that the national debt per taxpayer is $104,000 is depressing, but it doesn’t
mean we’re in terrible times.
On the other hand, if you look around you and see people like the ones in the above list, it could be that things are worse than you realize.
FYI, the prescription the Bible gives concerning these people: “Have nothing to do with them.” A little harsh, maybe, but then it seems to refer to those people who pretend to be followers of Jesus but who really are just following their own desires.
My sense is that when God’s people are most effective, they’re an encouragement to everyone around them. But when they’re focused on themselves, they lose their effectiveness. And when times are tough, we especially need encouragement.
Terrible times should be a clarion call for us to pay attention to the people we hang around.
Amen and AMEN!
So needed to hear this today!
Thanks heaps,
Jess
Don’t fall in love with money. Be satisfied with what you have. The Lord has promised that he will not leave us or desert us.
Hebrews 13:4-6 Seth great blog this A.M. It is almost like all the good news is gone due to the money news, BUT, our “good news” is the truth and He will never forsake us! Thanks for the wake up call, be alert brothers and sisters, Frank
So instead of focusing on ourselves during hard times, we should focus all the more on God, and what’s important to Him. God impressed that on me this morning, too. It’s hard to get past that fleshly desire to focus on me, but Christ in me does make it possible.
You put into words what I have been thinking about but have not had the right words for. As a result I was able to say something to a man I met at a funeral today as we were discussing today’s conditions in the USA.
You also made me realize that “terribleness” is relative in this world. Meaning, as an example, there are those who nothing, no food or clean water. We have problems in the USA, but most of us are not starving, have a roof, and can buy food and drink clean water.
So, when it comes to the physical, how bad can bad get? When does bad become terrible? I suppose it all depends, when considering the physical realm. But in the spiritual realm, it is “terrible” when someone loses their soul, thus entering eternal death. Nothing is more terrible than that for a person. Therefore, seems that we need to focus on the condition of people’s souls and not the condition of the economy.
Christ took upon Himself the “terrible” (all sin upon Himself)such that we would be saved from the “terrible” (punishment in hell for eternity).
Thanks for the list of people to avoid during difficult times, indeed they make difficult times harder! I agree on choosing friends one should be with during good and bad times!