I guess every generation thinks what’s going on in the world in their time on earth is the worst it’s ever been. And although there might be some truth to that, when you look back through the history of the bible, there have been some really terrible things going on that each generation had to live through.

God tells us in Scripture not to worry. How do you do that when it seems that the world is worse than ever? But is it really? Looking back through history, over all generations since the beginning of time, in all lands, with all people groups, there has always been great sin, turmoil, and evil. God brought judgment, people repented, and then still continued on with their sin or invented new ways of doing evil.

The apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:29-31…

“They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. 31They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.”

Starting with Adam and Eve who, even though they were created in God’s image, used their free will to plummet the entire human race into sin with just one bad decision. After over 1000 years had passed, the people on earth continued to become more and more sinful; so much so that God had to send a great flood to destroy them all. Only Noah and his family, along with the animals he brought with him into the arc, survived. This event, in itself, could have been considered by that generation to be an unprecedented, epic disaster, if…there had been people left to survive it.

Our job, as Christians, is to be obedient to what God asks us to do and leave the problems of this world to him. We should:

• do what we can to bring about peace through peaceful means;
• be with God daily through His Word and prayer;
• love God more than anything or anyone else;
• love others as ourselves;
• trust in what God says and determine to live out that trust

Matthew 5: 25-34

25“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

It is my prayer that God would, in His grace and mercy, help us all to find sustained peace to live in this world and to choose to give grace and mercy to each other. Scripture says that if we love God we must also love others. As Christians, we must choose to do what God asks of us and be an example. In so doing, we can show others that there is another way to live…God’s way or the world’s way. There is no middle ground. We must also show that we trust in His goodness and faithfulness to care for us by not getting into conversations that show we lost our hope or faith because of what goes on around us. Our conversation needs to provide hope and reflect that God is sovereign and He has the final authority over the world He created.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

How lovely and peaceful the world would be if those who are called by His name would do that. Trust that God will take care of His people and focus on being just, loving kindness and walking humbly with God.