In the current debate over same-sex marriage, legalization of marijuana, immigration reform, SOPA/PIPA, and the list goes on… my advocation to Christians is to think and pray.
You can count on being regarded as a bigot, egocentric, unaccepting, prude and old-fashioned. The same group that casts these labels has demonstrated little interest in becoming acquainted with your thoughts and beliefs, so you will be misunderstood.
But don’t stop thinking deeply, praying fervently and loving wildly.
You will be asked to be quiet, but as of now, free-speech is still a part of our constitution, and I would urge you to exercise that ability.
Yet, while you do, think:
- About the people involved on the other side of the debate
- About your body, soul and mind becoming more in line with the heart of the Father
- Critically; seek truth, not what appeases man
- Long and hard before speaking; seek first to understand before being understood
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3
All is not lost. We have been here before. Court rulings will be decided, and later overturned. Our responsibility is to think, pray and love.
Pray for wisdom in the decisions that are made; that our government would see past the immediate, to understand the long-term effects of their decisions.
Pray for men and women of faith to step into office, that they might reflect the rule of God in the United States as it is in the heaven.
Pray for hope and peace for young Christian fathers and mothers who are eagerly seeking to raise God-fearing children in an increasingly humanistic society.
Pray for your “enemies”. Pray for those on the other side of the debate. Pray for those who are different than you.
My mom always prayed over us boys: “Bless them as they obey you God, and curse them in their disobedience.” A mother’s loving response desires that our road is difficult if we choose to reject God’s ways; that the difficult road might turn us back to Him.
Don’t lose hope.
Think Deeply. Pray Fervently. Love Fiercely.
Being right doesn’t preclude you from showing love. Landing on the losing side of a vote doesn’t exclude you from showing kindness or giving generously. And though your heart may burn within you to see God’s children run from Him, His desire to ravish them with loving kindness is greater than the fear or angst that you may feel. So love fiercely.
Jesus’ time with the prostitute at the well ended with truth: “go and sin no more.” But it was his love which saw beyond her past that caused her to hurry into the city proclaiming she had found the Messiah.
The people didn’t kill Jesus for his evasive argumentative skills. They killed him because, in a world of darkness, there is no place for the type of radical love that He espoused. Oh that we would love like Jesus!
For you to think, pray and love, you may be stoned or crucified. Yet consider this: our King was. And death did not keep Him down, nor will it have the final word with you. #JesusWins