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January 01, 2021
by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Romans 8:28
OUR WORLD HAS become a large, impersonal, busy affair.
Social media and the technological age have caused us to become alienated from each other.
OUR WORLD HAS become a large, impersonal, busy affair.
Social media and the technological age have caused us to become alienated
from each other. We're connected but not in community. No longer do
neighbors visit across the backyard fence, chat in the driveway, or catch
up on the kids at the mailbox. Those days are long gone. Our well-manicured
front lawns and meticulously landscaped perimeters have become modern-day
moats that keep barbarians at bay. Hoarding and flaunting have replaced
sharing and caring. It's like we are occupying common space but have no
common interests, as if we're on an elevator with rules such as: "No
talking, smiling, or eye contact allowed without written consent of the
management."
Painful though it may be for us to admit, we're losing touch with one
another. The motivation to help, to encourage, yes, to serve our fellow
human beings is waning. People have even observed crimes in progress but
refused to help so as not to be involved! Our foundational values are
getting lost in these confusing days. And yet it is these things that form
the essentials of a happy and fulfilled life.
Listen to God's vision for our lives:
We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those
who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
ROMANS 8:28
Maybe you've never stopped to consider what "His purpose" is. Briefly put,
God is committed to one major objective in your life: to conform you into
"the image of His Son." One of the many ways I've seen Him do that is
through interaction with others.
He's up to something by placing you in a small group at church with a
family with a special-needs son, or forcing you to work closely with an
office manager whose life is coming unglued. Those interactions may be
awkward, even unpleasant at times, but they could be what God's up to in
forming you into the image of His Son.
Consider today how you might join God in that purpose. Make yourself
available as a dispenser of His kindness, a giver of His grace to someone
who might need both.