Kingdom Men Rising: An 8-Day Reading Plan Sample

Get Along

Oftentimes it feels easier to blame something outside of ourselves when we go through troubles in life. But there is someone we rarely think to blame, who may actually be behind the issues we are facing—God Himself. To be clear, God is never responsible for evil or suffering. He cannot sin or cause sin; it is against His holy nature. However, God will often allow us to sit in the disorder of our lives in order that we might return to Him and experience refreshing and revival.

God doesn’t stir up issues for us to deal with just for the fun of it. But He does allow negative consequences in our lives to crop up when He is trying to get our attention. Rather than pointing fingers at everyone else when difficulties arise, we might want to take a moment to focus on the One who is really in charge. When we do, we will find that the way to solve life’s challenging situations is sometimes easier than we had once thought.

In recent years, we as a nation and the world have been in the middle of multiple simultaneous pandemics. We are facing dual pandemics: a medical pandemic and a cultural pandemic. Yet, deeper still and at the root of both of these sat a spiritual pandemic.

What I noticed as I observed all that took place during the onset of this unusual time, is that we had wandered far from the value system established by God for how human beings are to live, act, and relate to one another. What’s more—our wandering had gone on for far too long. Across racial and class lines, we had come up with our own standards for how we should treat each other, and it had not done us any good.

As we saw in the passage we just read, God will occasionally allow unrest in order to urge His people to a heartfelt call on Him for help. He has to let His people hit rock bottom in order that we might discover He truly is the rock at the bottom. Sometimes it takes a mess to make a miracle.

Problems abound in our culture today. We certainly have plenty for God to say, “Enough is enough!” But if we miss the reality that God has allowed disorder in order to bring about a correction and a cleaning, then we will just move from one symptom to another symptom. We will miss the opportunity to address the root that has produced the fruit that has led to the confusion of hopelessness on display.

The root of the problems we face in our churches, culture, and country today are clearly spiritual. To repair and restore our culture we must understand the spiritual components behind our problems before proposing pragmatic solutions to these crises.