How to Live in Perilous Times Hab. 3:18 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
There is no question that the world is in perilous times. And the topic among Christians often concerns how to live in perilous times. Some want to hunker down and await the coming “storm,” some want all the churches to unite and stand together by being a larger multitude, some are apathetic, some are clueless, some are fearful, some just pretend that everything is going to be fine as long as they are happy, and so forth.
Well, the Bible gives us clear instructions on how to live in perilous times. And if you will follow these six things you will find that you are well prepared to live in these times. Here’s how to live in perilous times:
Keep yourself in the love of God – Jude 21. Keeping yourself in the love of God takes great care. As in a marriage, you must dedicate your time to the Lord in fellowship. You must devote yourself to the Lord and his desires. Obey him, serve him, be faithful to him, talk with him, walk with him, look for him in every aspect of your life [like Prov 3:6 says, “in all thy ways ‘acknowledge’ him”], love what he loves, hate what he hates, be where he wants you to be, do what he wants you to do, please him, follow him and don’t let anyone or anything at anytime come between you and him. Let him be your all in all. Whatever is going on in the world around you won’t drag you away from him one bit.
Build up your faith – Jude 20. Stay in the word and live by the word. Build up your faith by maintaining a steady diet of the words of God everyday. Look for the Lord to speak to you out of the Bible by giving him time in prayer and meditation to show you a verse or verses of scripture that apply to you today. Listen to preaching both in church and on the radio or on the internet; good sermons offer reproof and instruction. Walk by faith in the light of God’s word rather than by sight or by feeling. In other words, let what God says in the Bible guide you and your affairs rather what men say and rather than what you see or feel. You will go through problems and trials and suffering along the way yet God will always be good to you and he will always be faithful. The more you go through by faith, the more you will build up your faith. And you need strong faith in perilous times.
Pray in the Holy Ghost – Jude 20. This is not some special unknown prayer language. This is prayer that is Spirit-filled [Acts 4:31] and Spirit led [Rom 8:26-27]. It is prayer that is humble, earnest, fervent, effectual, godly and powerful. And it is prayer that is not hurried and is not distracted. This is prayer that draws you to the throne of God [Heb 4:16] and that turns God’s attention toward you [1 Pet 3:12]. And this is prayer that gets answered. In perilous times there is hardly anyone else who will help you.
Keep yourself pure – 1 Jn 3:3. A big part of the trouble in perilous times is that Christians get sucked into the world and into loving the things of the world. Many Christians are not consecrated to the Lord and sanctified by him. So when you look around and you see that “filthy” Christians [2 Cor 7:1] are the norm, you think you are doing okay. And the pervasive worldliness puts you further and further out of touch with God. You must stay pure. 2 Chr 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him”. You are going to need the strength of the Lord in perilous times and his strength is available to them “whose heart is perfect toward him”. Your standard of purity is Jesus not man.
Rejoice in the Lord – Hab 3:18. The very center and source of our joy must be the Lord. But today Christians find joy in pleasures, entertainment and recreation. I’m not saying that a time of recreation is bad. But when you delight in things and activities more than in God, you let them replace the joy that can only come from the Lord. In perilous times you have to be careful with pleasures because you can easily start loving them more than you love God [2 Tim 3:4]. In perilous times, particularly, you realize that happiness is temporary and true joy is permanent. We rejoice in tribulation, affliction, and persecution. Joy is what gets you through these tough times.
Take somebody else with you – Jude 22-23. Everyone without Jesus Christ no matter where they are in the world is going to hell. In perilous times more and more people will reject the Lord. Yet there are still those who will receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour as long as someone will preach the gospel to them. Don’t keep your salvation to yourself. There are ungodly people out there who need to hear Jesus preached with compassion and fear. You must remember to quit consuming all your thoughts on yourself and all of your time on you so that you will have time and compassion to enter the harvest and sow the word of God and reap some souls.
Conclusion: Stay with these few things. Christians are dulling their senses and wasting their time with worldly technology and entertainment. Don’t drift away from these six important things by neglecting them in your life.