Compromise

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Compromise is one of the tools in satan’s arsenal against those who follow Christ. His first goal is to do all he can to make sure that a commitment to Christ never happens, but when we make that transformative choice there is nothing he can do to stop our eternal relationship with Christ.

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)

Satan doesn’t admit defeat, he simply changes tactics. Once we belong to Christ, he moves to his next level of attack, which is to stop us from becoming effective Christians, and certainly to make sure we never have a Kingdom effect on those around us.

As long as we don’t seem different to the lost around us, we will never convey the sweetness of Christ to a lost and dying world. We should strive to live in such a way that our daily life is a witness to what Christ offers. Do I respond to the daily challenges in a way that display Christ, or does my response show the sin that is within me?

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” (Romans 8:5)

The world around us is clearly headed downhill as evil manifests itself clearer every day. Here in America, the God standard of America has been chipped away steadily and now it’s hard to find. We have moved from being a county guided by an external non-changing standard to a society that now says every man should be guided by what they think is right, and that standard can change daily! But to those who follow Christ, we know that according to God’s word the world isn’t falling apart, it’s falling into place.

“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28)

So we are not called to look for sin in the world around us, but to start by examining the sin that is within us. We are called to have eyes for eternity, and cultivate daily our relationship with Christ. That truly is the only way for us as Christians to live a life of peace and joy among the unrest that surrounds us, and look for ways to share that peace to those around us. I love this quote by Oswald Chambers:

“God is ‘The Great Engineer’, creating circumstances to bring about moments of divine importance, leading us to divine appointments.”

There are moments that zip past us daily and I know I likely miss many of them that were designed by God to present opportunities.

Today I will choose to try to look for those moments.