How to thrive in a corrupt & confrontational society
Our daily lives are being affected more and more today by the declining moral standards in our society. For a while there, we could just ignore it and live our life. But now it is pretty much being shoved in our faces. Let alone the fact that God has been waking HIs people up and filling us with courage and boldness to confront these issues instead of ignore them. If we, God’s people, are not willing to confront these issues, then who will? It is up to us to do so!
But, how are we as wives and moms supposed to live in a society that has no regard for God and His commandments? Our nation, for those of us living in America, was founded on God’s principles and truth, but the enemy has been hard at work to tear us down because of that. And unfortunately, it seems as though he has succeeded. If it were not for God and His plans!
I believe scripture and intimacy with Jesus is all we need to survive these days. And reading 1 Peter chapter 2, we can pull out a significant amount of advice for how we can not only survive, but thrive in these days of mockers and scoffers. The 4 main points that jump out to me when reading this chapter are:
We are to mature in our salvation
We are to live life differently
We are to stand firm when judged and mocked
We are to look to Jesus as our rock and example
If we put our whole heart into growing with Jesus and deepening our understanding of scripture, growing in our maturity in Christ, then that will strengthen us in our daily walk. We will be able to stand more firm in our convictions and understanding of how we should behave in all situations. This is also how we live life differently. We must be solid in our beliefs and continually renew our minds in order to live life differently. If not, we will most likely find ourselves slowly turning in the current and eventually following the crowds we had no initial intention of following.
I hear people often asking the question of how to stand up in groups and how to handle situations with people who have beliefs different from us and how to answer questions appropriately when confronted. I believe the answer comes under our first point, maturing in our salvation. If we have intimacy with Jesus, if we are growing in our relationship with Him, if we are maturing in our hearing and obeying the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, if we are in scripture daily and renewing our minds in the truth, then we are strengthened for those very situations. We are prepared for those situations. We have a backbone of scripture to go off of and can recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit guiding us in what to say. Actively maturing ourselves is critical for every aspect of our life.
How do we stand firm when judged and mocked? Well, by maturing in our salvation! This truly is the answer to many issues believers are facing today. We are being caught off guard and not prepared because maturity has not been a priority within the church. But thank the Lord He has been raising up His people and now we are catching up and more prepared than before! If you are finding yourself struggling with judgment and mocking, then start everyday with the Lord. Press into Him more than you ever have before. Decide on a fast and do that. Reach out to friends and family for prayer support. Slow down your schedule and add in more time to read scripture. God always gives us a way through our troubles, we just have to be willing to work at it!
Lastly, when facing trials we are to look to Jesus for His example that He has set for us. Did Jesus ever complain? No. Did Jesus ever gossip? No. Did Jesus ever turn away from someone because of mistreatment? No. Go to the scriptures and find a similar example in the gospels and study how Jesus handled the situation. Go to prayer and ask Jesus to open your eyes to see the situation from His perspective. Usually, He sees things entirely different than the way we do!
Ladies, I think a lot of us (me included) got caught off guard a few years ago when the world went crazy. I thank God everyday for His grace in waking me up and opening my eyes to the ways of the world and bringing scripture to life! Now it is time for us women of God to walk in the authority that God has given us as His daughters. Let’s commit together to mature in our salvation, build ourselves up in the Lord, and refuse to back down to the enemy and his lies trying to take over. We must remember that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
