In America, and everywhere else in this world, money seems to have the number one place in our priorities. If we don't have the cash, we have to get something equal to it...barter for what we need, grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, do it ourselves, find someone else to help us, etc. Churches pray as hard for money as any struggling family or business. We live in a constant battle for faith that carries us through our needs.
I do the same thing. But I also have to stop myself and remember that GOD is sovereign. If He wanted us to have something, there would be a way that it would come to us. If it appears that someone is blocking our prayers, our need, then the delay or denial must be from GOD for some reason. My Bible stories are a bit rusty right now, but I think it was Daniel that prayed and had to wait three weeks for the angels to battle their way through to him. That story says a lot about the struggles between good and evil.
When we don't get our prayers answered, we have to find a way through the problem...and accept that GOD knows what He is doing, that something bigger than us is in process. I often think our prayers are going to be less answered as the End Times get worse and our dedications to the things of GOD gets less. The Bible tells us that the world will become like Sodom, like the days of Noah. The main issue in Sodom was sexuality, the only thing we really know about Noah is that he was the only righteous person. These two warnings tell us we need to prepare for the decline of godliness.
I have been thinking about a lot of the End Time issues we will face since I first started seeking GOD about what I should do. My life evolved into Working Together and a long, long, difficult struggle that isn't over yet. I have come to see that GOD cannot interfere with every bad thing that takes place. We think no harm should afflict us, no pain should get through the "hedge of protection" we believe GOD has placed around us. But that is not true.
The things that hurt us come from people who have no moral foundation...and those people are going to grow more and more abundant. Our world, including in America, is not going to be a great place to live. America has lost its morality. The church is losing its foundations. Is money the cause? Is comfort the cause? What happened to change all the goodness that was once America? Could it just be a fact of prophecy? In order for prophecy to be fulfilled, we have to live through this declining process. Nothing can change that reality. America has great military power, and anyone that controls it will be able to overcome the rest of the world if they want to. Our place in prophecy is not really known.
What matters more is that we keep our understanding of the power that GOD is. There is nothing more powerful than GOD. He is more powerful than Satan, more powerful than demons, more powerful than all the details of our material world. GOD can make food increase supernaturally in fields and in baskets. GOD can part rivers to let us get across them. GOD can heal diseases and inflict diseases, depending on His purpose. The main thing is that it is according to HIS WILL, not ours.
He doesn't always intervene to make our lives more comfortable. In the Bible, GOD gets involved when Jesus is in danger...until the appointed time of His death. GOD was involved in the life of Moses, the life of David, the life of John the Baptist, and more. GOD acts to fulfill His Will, to protect His Name, to deliver judgment for sin. The End Times will be so devastating that even the elect will be tempted to turn away. I think it is easy to see how technology is going to make our lives much harder than we expect them to be.
I hope that we have enough time to prepare places of refuge for those who love Christ, who serve GOD, and who will not have anywhere else to turn. We need to be by those who believe as we do. We need to plan for food, for work, for money. I am praying that Working Together will be able to make something permanent in every region, bring together what is already there, and planning for a future that may last another 100 years, just in case. But there is no guarantee. Only GOD know the real timeline we face. I am hoping we can create places that He will bless and protect, as He did for Goshen in the plagues against Egypt.
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