Devotion #6: Standing Firm in a Shifting World
As much as I have a hard time believing and admitting it, the numbers do not lie. I am middle-aged. The fine lines are creeping in, the grey hairs are poking out, and it just is what it is. Perhaps we all feel this way in regard to our very unique and personal God-given life maps, but I feel like I was born at such an interesting time. I am old enough to remember life before the internet but young enough to adapt to all the new changes the world was bringing. My childhood was idyllic. I would wake up and walk to my neighborhood school where the only safety protocol that I ever had to worry about was earthquake drills and fire safety (seriously though, for as many times as we discussed this in school, not once have I ever had to stop, drop, and roll). I would then go home and call my best friend on my fancy gold rotary dial phone and then bike over to her house to play Mall Madness. The days that we got to go to the computer room in school, which was a small classroom with maybe eight giant box computers, were the greatest days of my life. Fellow Millennials may shed some tears of nostalgia when I remind you of Carmen SanDiego, Math Blaster, Treasure Mountain, KidPix, and, of course, the one where everyone dies of dysentery or drowning - The Oregon Trail. I went to church every Sunday and Wednesday, and everyone else did, too, because that was just what people did. Of course, now, as an adult, I realize that that is not exactly true. Not everyone went to church, but it was at least the normal and expected thing to do. As my years progressed, things started to change. I was a high school freshman when the Columbine tragedy shocked the nation. I was a junior when I watched the planes fly into the Twin Towers. Honestly, society has just seemed to have gone downhill from there. Fast-forwarded to today, life back then is unrecognizable. Whether this is reality or not, I feel like I was born and raised in a Christian society, which then slowly faded into a post-Christian society, and now is rapidly transforming into an anti-Christian society. If I am being truly honest, I have a really hard time accepting this without fear and anxiety.
Lately, it feels harder and harder to live as a Christian in today’s world. Society seems to be drifting further from biblical truth, and standing firm in faith can feel isolating, scary, and sometimes even dangerous. From being misunderstood for your beliefs to being labeled hateful and unloving, we watch laws and cultural norms grow increasingly anti-God, and it is so easy to feel overwhelmed and afraid. These feelings are not new. In Romans 8:35-39, Paul speaks directly to these fears when he writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul would have known that his audience, Christians living in Rome, needed some major encouragement. Believers were constantly faced with ridicule, rejection, and even death for their faith. Paul knew this reality well, as he himself endured beatings, imprisonment, and untimely martyrdom for his faith in Christ. Yet, he declared with boldness that none of these hardships could ever sever the bond between Christ and His church, nor could any amount of persecution, cancelation, or trial undo the victory that Christ has secured for us! Paul’s confidence was not rooted in favorable circumstances or a safe society but in the unchanging, unbreakable love of God.
As we navigate a society that is increasingly hostile to Christian values, we can take heart in this truth: God’s love is greater than anything we will ever face. We do not have to live in fear, whether present or future, because we know that we are eternally secure in Him. No matter what was, what is, or what will come to be, stand firm! We are “more than conquerors,” which means that not only will we win, but we will win in a landslide. Christ is with us every step of the way, and nothing will ever separate us from His love. That is where true victory lies.