For Such a Time as This

Do you know “the times”?  Do you recognize the distinct hazards and prime opportunities of our day, our moment in history?

Don’t drift through life with the eyes of your heart darting after every shiny, shocking, upsetting push notification.  Don’t just go with the digital flow.  Ask God to help you see the world as he does, and to care about what’s most deeply on his heart.

So what is unique about the times right now?  Well, there’s no single right answer to that question, but one important answer is this:  right now the tension and angst and flurry of our cultural moment scream for your attention, and as a result our minds are gripped and consumed by things that don’t last—temporal things, fleeting matters.  Not unimportant issues, mind you.  But this-worldly concerns that will vanish beyond the grave.

And as a result, what’s not on our minds is the everlasting glory of Jesus Christ and his eternal-life-giving gospel!  (My message here is half personal confession, and half pastoral exhortation; I know I need this challenge, and if you do too, well, “if the shoe fits...”)

Think how bizarre—and how sad—this is.  What if you were given, say, a free, one-year vacation to absolutely anywhere you’d like to go, all expenses paid… but then prior to day one of this glorious future all you thought about was the drive to the airport:  “What will we do in the car, who will drive, how fast, which roads, who sits where, what to say, where to look, are my needs met, am I getting fair treatment, is the drive to the airport fulfilling?”

The men of Issachar understood their times—what God wanted them to do (1 Chron. 12:32).  Esther understood her times—God’s special calling “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).  By contrast, Hezekiah didn’t grasp the moment—he was absorbed with him­self and ignored future generations (Isaiah 39:8).  How about you?  Do you see how Satan is luring believers to gorge themselves on temporary tidbits, and thus lose sight of what matters eternally?