A Different Prayer request

[ZekeSr]

This is not really the type of prayer request generally seen here, but I believe it to be important in light of our fast-changing environment--as well as the inevitable personal problems that I read on this site—problems that I recognize to be ubiquitous.

There is no doubt that our times have become more and more turbulent. I haven't seen this much uncertainty since perhaps the 1960's. But even then, when civil unrest and the cold war were in full advance, there didn't seem to be the same widespread feeling of angst that I currently perceive.

Every day brings us closer to the end of the age. But the end has been approaching for thousands of years. And every passing day is precisely one more of those last days. Meanwhile, every generation since the apostilles has believed itself to be the final generation—often for good reason when considering the course of history. After all, there have been countless tsunamis of death, disease, tyranny and destruction flooding across the landscape of humanity. But the calamities have always abated or been localized to some degree before reemerging and, once again, bolstering the next generation into declaring itself to be the absolute grand finale. But who knows? We might go another thousand years (even though I quite sincerely doubt it).

I can't speak for anyone else, but sometimes I find myself questioning my faith in this panorama of insecurity. There are occasions when I'm tempted to "walk away" as the beast rises up to wheedle me from within—enticing me to take the perceived "easy" way out. And now, as I write this, I realize that what I've comprehended as the last days is not necessarily the same as the end of the age. Regardless of when the end of the age arrives, we all live in our own last days. Therefore, I feel it important for us to humbly pray for each other in common—that we hold fast. This is both personal and general, as I strongly sense that I'm not the only one who periodically wrestles with this enigma.

2Pe 3:3  First, knowing this, that there will come in the last days scoffers walking according to their own lusts
2Pe 3:4  and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
1Th_5:2  For you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.

  Mike

[Rhys 🕊]

I have found listening to the bible and reading The Lake of Fire series by Ray helps a lot . I listen to both online as is easier for me that way. This gives me a lot of peace as I understand more that God is in control of everything. No matter how bad things are or become it's all of God's will. There is freedom for all coming. I can say for me to have more focus on God now and less on the problems around me is setting me free. I don't need to have all the doors open to me when God comes to visit me in the room I'm already in.

Rhys

[HoneyLamb56]

Mike you have so clearly articulated what I have been thinking; as you stated, I'm sure a good many feel the same.

Rhys... happy that you are finding peace; more people need their focus on God; as you, I also have been rereading Ray's material   ; so many are caught up in the media attention of "are we in the last days?" that they more focused on the wrong things.

Thank you both for your comments.  It encourages us to reevaluate ourselves in our walk with God, knowing He's in control.


Diane

[casey]

Thanks for sharing Mike. RIGHT ON

       Casey

[AwesomeSavior]

A friend pointed this verse from Hosea to me a while ago:  "After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight" (Hosea 6:2).

Contrast that one verse with this verse: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" [2 Peter 3:8].

Looking backward into history, is it apparent that the "revive" and "raise us up" from Hosea wasn't going to happen for two thousand years after His own revival from the dead?

The good news is that we are closing in on that 2 thousand year period from the crucifixion.

[Dave in Tenn]

Mike, for quite a while I worried that I might be one of those being talked about in 2Peter.  But I have come to see a different population and mind-set as having at least somewhat more of a claim to that distinction.  I look at history broadly like you've presented, and added to that struggles in my own life, both in religion and out (though mostly, in my case, while within) and come to different conclusions about the whole "topic" than any I held back then.

Right or wrong, I'm at peace...if for no other reason than that I do not get a vote or say in the matter.  Hang in there.  He's not given us anything to bear without escape.  Whether we live or die, we do it for Him.

[friendofJC]

Romans 5:19  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.     

[indianabob]

Romans 5:19  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.   

Well said, and I would like to add that the same "many" will be made righteous in the ages to come.
I understand that "many" can mean all eventually

Rom 5:20 

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 
Rom 5:21  That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal (aionian) life by Jesus Christ our Lord.