Jesus: The Trouble Shooter

There’s a lot of trouble in the world right now. People are rioting in under-developed countries because they can’t afford to buy food. Prices for staples such as bread and rice have reached astronomical prices that some communities are in danger of starvation. This is not being caused through famine or shortages, but because they cannot earn enough each week to feed their families anymore.

Even here in the United States, the wealthiest nation on earth, working families in Atlanta are having to go to church food banks to help them out. They cannot afford to keep up with gasoline prices, but they need their cars to keep their jobs. So they need to get food for the weekend from charity organizations.

And some seniors in our society are suffering, too. Medical prescriptions and essential supplies are becoming so expensive that people are skipping to take what they need, in order to make their pills and capsules last a little while longer before refills are required.

Who cares about these things? What has happened to our country, and our world that we’re faced with so many shortages? Who is getting rich off the backs of the poor, the hungry, and the economically oppressed? Why is this happening, and what do we need do to change this?

Personally, I think it is all symptomatic of people turning their backs on Christ and idolizing money. It may be too simple a diagnosis for most people, but let’s consider the facts: ever since society started too become more secular, more anti-religious, and more atheistic, the world has become a very scary, more violent, deeply troubled place. As our churches started emptying, so has the goodwill and prosperity of our people. Doesn’t anyone see a pattern here? Am I making this all up to score some “I told you so” points?

John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.”

We need to evangelize as churches and get people reconnected to Christ. His presence saved civilization for 2000 years. Do we really want to turn back the clock and re-enter a time where survival of the fittest and the law of the jungle operates throughout the world? Are we really that ornery, stubborn, stiff-necked, and essert, that we won’t admit to ourselves that this fifty year experimentation with secular instability and militant atheism is ruining the hopes and dreams of a peaceable kingdom? Have we so bought into consumerism and its material world that we are now consuming ourselves and that other people don’t matter anymore?

People, whether we like it or not, whether we can accept it or reject it, the simple truth is this: Jesus is, and always has been, the answer to our woes. When we start believing in Him and applying His commandment of loving one another, then we will work together to overcome this mess that the secularists, materialists, consumerists, and atheists have created. Only Jesus can overcome our troubles. Only He can lead us back to salvation.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive us for rejecting Your counsel and accepting the world’s ways. Pardon us for putting you in a box and keeping You confined. Help us to recognize that the diminishing of our faith means the increase of trouble for the world. Help us to turn the world around by changing our communities with Your Living, Loving presence. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.