It’s sad to know that most people are looking for joy and peace, and for the solution to their problems in the wrong place, at the wrong timing and the wrong means. No wonder they are getting more complicated and confused in a helpless and hopeless condition bewildered on how they can get up from their worsening situation. The more they grapple for survival, the more they find themselves so vulnerable to end up their lives some in jail, some in hospital while others are already in the cemetery because they could no longer bear the rising torment of having a powerless life in a bubbly, sugar-coated decaying world.
They are in the wrong place because instead of running to God for help when problem comes, they deliberately run toward the opposite direction making it easier for Satan to destroy them subtly and softly. James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” In this world there is no neutral ground where you can stay totally free from the gravity of either good and evil. The farther you are away from God, the closer you are dragging yourself to Satan’s trap of destruction. If people will only give time to listen to the cries of their soul, then what they can hear is its groaning to be with God for His fatherly care. That’s what this world is missing so grievously because of misdirected search for answers to their real needs. The world has so much to give that will attract people who are looking for immediate satisfaction without giving a thought of its dreadful consequence. Reason why cocaine, alcohol, illicit sex and the likes get a rapid gain of popularity because most people chose to be lovers of self rather than lovers of their Maker, the God Almighty.
When people are offended, instead of thanking God as their avenger and their paymaster (Romans 12:19), they immediately resort to make revenge by getting even with their offender. These people believe that God is all powerful and is in control of everything. They believe that God is always with them and will never depart from them. But how soon do they forget God’s promises which are available for all people to claim when trouble comes. Instead of taking the opportunity of experiencing God’s enduring faithfulness and trustworthiness by letting Him take care of their problem, most people choose to find the solution using their limited resources depriving themselves to experience the unlimited resources of God. They only come to God when they reach the point of helplessness where they have no other choice but to suffer the consequence of their spiritual waywardness.
People are in the wrong timing because people are so impulsive, lacking patience to wait upon God’s right timing. Loneliness is one big problem of man which people equate as emptiness. When it comes, instead of taking it as God’s clarion call to turn their face and seek God, they are allowing Satan to use it as his instrument of pulling them farther from God and mercilessly tear them down. Psalm 37:7a says, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” His promise in Isaiah 46:4 is enough to keep us relax and calm even in times of turmoil because God says, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Romans 8:32 is so convincing giving us no room to doubt God’s love for us saying, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” So why worry if we can pray? Anyway, it’s God’s command for us to rejoice at all times. Why? Because we can pray at all times, therefore we can start giving thanks to God even before we pray knowing that God, who is our Father really cares for us. He will not withhold the lesser things most especially that in His hands nothing is impossible.
People are using the wrong means because they keep on running ahead of God in solving their problems. Yes, they come to God to pray but as soon as they finish praying they go back to their own way of managing their life without paying attention to God’s Word even if they knew that in this world we are not wrestling against flesh but against the power in the air. We need God in our life to fight against the wiles of Satan triumphantly. We cannot underestimate the power of Satan to destroy us. But with God, no one can prevail against us.
We can praise God and adore Him with our highest worship because He came in human form not only to save us from the penalty of sin but to show us as well His example how to live His image which is the original state of man before the Fall of Adam and Eve into sin. Before He died right before the eyes of His detractors, He cried hard to His Father in heaven saying in Luke 23:34a, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Jesus overcome the world with humility. He overcome the world with love and therefore, so are we. Romans 12:21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Don’t act like a rattlesnake. When it is cornered, it can become so frenzied that it will accidentally bite itself with its deadly fangs. The same thing will happen to a person who harbors hatred and resentment in his or her heart. Its venom will horribly hurt and destroy him.
But blessed are those whose trust is in the Lord, even in times of dire needs for he will not be shaken (Ps. 16:8). He has no fear of bad news because God is his refuge and strength (Ps. 46:1).
Jeremiah 17:5-8 says, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.’”