IN CHANGING TIMES

Were you involved in sports in your youth or as a teenager or maybe later as an adult? If so, then you know it gets harder as you go. For the young ones, the balls are often bigger and softer, the rules are quite lax. If you stay with it, the older you get, the harder the balls and tougher the rules become! In a sense, it is similar to what has happened in the world we are living in today. If you were playing any kind of softball before, those days are over. It is a hardball world today with tough rules, high-speed fast balls and wild curve balls that are often difficult to see coming.

In order to make it, one has to be diligent. It does not take much, and you can be “out of the game.” Praise the Lord, He is with us and cares about every facet of our days and lives. Praise the Lord, even if the world were to go completely insane, He is still Lord and He is still with us. My prayer is that no matter what happens in this world, you will be so attuned to the Lord, that He will be able to guide you through it. There is a measure of evil that will be allowed in the last of the last days. Are we there yet? Personally, I think we are on the edge, but even if I am wrong, we are closer than ever.

So what do we do? The most important thing anyone can do is be right with God and draw close to Him no matter what. If times get harder, this will become even more important. One needs to have their soul fed with the water and the word. What does that mean? We need to be strong in the Holy Spirit and the Bible. This is done through prayer, study, and worship. By worship I mean praise and adoration. Praise is being thankful and glorifying God for who He is and for His provisions, mercy, and grace. Adoration is something more. It is intimate. It is not usually loud. It comes from intimately adoring the Lord because of knowing Him. All these things, make one stronger in Christ and it is more important than ever to be strong in the Lord. It is not enough just to be a milk-toast Christian, one needs to be resilient in the Lord.

As for hearing the Lord, if you are not quite there yet, just pray and listen for His voice. He still speaks today. Do not let anyone’s negativity hinder you. He speaks in the heart area (the spirit), kind of where your gut instincts come from. It may seem like you hear Him in your head, but in reality, He is directing you and speaking by the Holy Spirit to your spirit. And usually after asking the Lord for help, you know deep inside what to do. Sometimes He speaks in a calm, soft voice. He speaks in this manner on purpose, so that we must listen to hear. He does not force this kind of voice on people who will not listen. Learn to pray and learn to listen.

Learn God’s Word. The devil knows the Bible. Yes, the devil knows the Bible and he knows very well how to twist it. That is his specialty. But how would we know when it is being twisted if we don’t know the truth of it? How can we stand on the promises of God if we do not know them? This is the time to dig into God’s Word! Not just read it, but read it to seriously learn and get it correctly and deeply into our hearts. There will come a day when the Bible will be outlawed. It will happen because the enemy does not want the truth known. How will anyone learn then, when anything godly has been removed from stores, the internet, and libraries? Eventually church will even be outlawed. I bet many people will wish they had gone when they could have. We must get deeper in God’s Word today. We must intensify our relationships with Him. The Bible says, if we draw close to God, He will draw close to us. The days of easily making it to heaven are probably days behind us. The days of playing church are quickly disappearing. A line has already been drawn. One side will have it easier in the world but will regret it for all eternity. The other side, will stand faithful to the Lord no matter how much pressure and persecution comes, but will have eternal peace and joy. The choice is up to us. It is time to get serious in our relationship with the Lord.

Eli Cockrell