The Simple Solution
2021 has just started and it is shaping up to be another complicated year. Churches everywhere are reporting low attendance, strife, and division among members. America is getting more politically charged by the day, and COVID-19 and the angst that goes with it show no signs of leaving us alone. When we scroll our social media feeds or turn on the news, we see many different and opposing solutions to our current stressful situations, which only seem to complicate and add to the negativity and confusion.
It is at times like this that I thank God for the parts of his word that are direct and easy to understand. For over 2000 years, Christians have been going through troubles and persecution, and the solution for these woes has always been found in the same place. The word of God is still living, active, and sharp, and it is up to us to go to his word daily so we can be rebuked, reminded, and transformed by what we read.
Allow me to share some verses with you that have humbled, motivated, and reminded me this past year of how a Christian is meant to act in a world that is full of trouble. These verses are simple but challenging, and they offer a solution to many problems we currently face.
Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
1 Peter 3:8 – Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
1 Peter 4:8-9 – Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
What a beautiful description of what Christianity looks like in just a few scriptures. Each morning for this upcoming week I will work to internalize, mature, and grow from these verses. I hope you will join me in repeating the following words each morning to remind us of the simple, but often hard-to-carry-out challenges in God’s Word.
Say it with me: I will be kind, tenderhearted, like-minded, sympathetic, compassionate, and humble to my Christian brothers and sisters. I will offer hospitality, and above all, I will love my brothers and sisters deeply.
My ongoing prayer is that we will all continue to be cut by the living Word, and that we can find answers to our individual struggles, and to the struggles of our neighbor in the powerful wisdom of the Word of God.