How shall we understand these days?

This question presses upon all who are involved in our society. In a political year, the candidates will be giving us answers. In a time of business confusion, the financial world will be suggesting comprehensions about the future. In a time of global unrest, the international leaders and military commanders will be looking at their charts, once again, seeking for understanding. Comprehension of the tide of our times is a commodity which is greatly needed but in short supply in these days.

What of the future? How shall we be equal to the great, but unknown, occasions which are now upon us? What shall we be thinking in convoluted times such as these? These questions and others are a part of the swirling concerns confronting our world.

Our Lord Jesus Christ anticipated this question and spoke most forcefully for our enlightenment. As we approach the end of the age, Christ reminded us that the good seed would have been sown in the great field, which is the world. Then He said, “But, while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way” (Matt. 13:25).

Speaking then about the wheat and the tares, Christ said, “Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matt. 13:30).

So, Christ reminded us of a condition that would obtain as history approaches its consummation. That condition is represented by His statement that the wheat and the tares would grow together until the harvest.

How then shall we understand our world? It is a world of good and evil. It is a world of regeneration and degeneration. It is a world of the conflict between light and darkness. In that world, the wheat and the tares will grow up together.

What then can we expect in our time? We can expect great good and great evil. We can anticipate that Satan, who knows his time is short, will go forth with great wrath in his attempt to kill, to destroy, to subvert and ruin. We can also expect that there will be the increasing blessing of God upon the truth of His Word and ministries that properly represent that truth. Indeed, to the church at Philadelphia, Christ said, “behold, I have set before you an open door and no man can shut it” (Rev. 3:8).

What then should this call for in our personal lives? It surely means that the Christian should be ambitious for Christ, but careful of spiritual subversion at the same time. The believer should aspire to be a greater testimony for the Lord Jesus than ever, but in the process, should pray and labor to avert the moral disasters that will come upon individuals and institutions in these days. While we live in a world of opportunity, we also live in a world of danger. Because the kingdom is not yet, we cannot expect perfection from ourselves or others. We can, however, look forward to bright occasions of spiritual opportunity in which unusual, spectacular results can be accomplished for Christ.

This combination, the conflict between good and evil which is growing in our time, certainly spells challenge, adventure for the Christian. For us, life will not be simple, but it will be thrilling. For us, the problems can be expected to be more complicated, but the opportunities spacious indeed.

Let us, therefore, pray that, with the help of God, we will be enabled to rise to the great occasions which are before us. In this time of political argument, let us extend the argument for the Gospel! In this year of wars and rumors of wars, let us be good soldiers for Christ! In this period of naked ambition, let us be ambitious for Christ, making it our aim to touch this generation with the Gospel.

What will it take to operate with spiritual success in a world like this? Certainly, it will take…

1. Wisdom from the Word of God. Take the time to study the Bible daily.

2. Faith by which to attempt great things for God. Faith saves us and it also is the enabling quality of our Christian lives.

3. Divine wisdom from the Holy Spirit. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

4. A Christian world view. We need to see the world as Christ sees it, needing the Gospel.

5. A sense of urgency. We do not have forever to work. Time may be running out for the world and certainly the clock is ticking for each of us as individuals.

Let us then ask together, “What can I do today, this hour for Christ?” That question asked sincerely, will bring a beautiful answer from heaven.

From the writings of Dave Breese