The Final Countdown

The moment that Jesus rose from the grave, the devil heard the first tick of a clock.

Before the cross, before the grave, before the ascension… the work had not yet been finished. When Jesus went to the cross for our sins and was raised to life for our justification, the Scriptures were fulfilled and satan lost.

The enemy lost. Jesus’ death and resurrection set everything in motion for the second coming and we are currently living on borrowed time. The enemy knows it and is doing everything he can. The question is — are we?

Are we really doing everything we can to make sure people know how much God loves them? I think some days it’s hard enough to remind ourselves that He loves us. I think sometimes we can get so consumed by our internal war that we forget there is another one going on. We are on the front lines in the war for lost souls.

How often do we avoid tough conversations because we are too tired or too drained? How often do we let a comment slide without addressing it because we assume they didn’t mean it or, even worse, we think they just want attention and we don’t want to give it? Friends, the enemy is never too tired or too drained to reinforce someone’s insecurities. When someone says they are depressed, ugly, suicidal, alone — if we don’t give them attention, guess who does.

I know you are tired. We live in a fallen world and, even when we lean on Jesus, it can be emotionally exhausting to continually see the hatred and the violence. It’s easier to place ourselves in a Christian bubble. It’s easier to surround ourselves with like-minded believers and watch the world turn on itself with a sad shake of our heads. It’s easier to focus on ourselves and our right-standing with God. But in the rush to serve God, do we stop to serve others?

Scripture intentionally shows us the times that Jesus stopped. One of the greatest examples is in Matthew 20. As Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem, He tells His disciples that he “will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.” We know that He is on His way to live out the plan that was foreordained before the foundation of the world, so we are able to see the importance of Him stopping to help the blind men on the road. What could we possibly be doing in our lives that is more important than what Jesus was doing in that moment? How can we justify not stopping to help our brothers and sisters who are hurting or blinded?

Make no mistake that we are currently in a battle. We need to be fighting tooth and nail for our brothers and sisters. Not with violence, not with arguments, not with arrogance, but with Jesus. The only way we can fight a supernatural enemy is with a supernatural Savior. When the enemy tears someone apart and shows them the deepest, darkest places in their souls and tells them that no one could ever love them, we have to show them a Redeemer who does. In the midst of these battles, don’t forget that we are fighting from a place of victory — the war has already been won.