I had a vacation last week with some significant time to reflect and the one thing I have been reminded of is that when The End draws near, it will be God Himself shaking the world.
"As he [Jesus] was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Jesus answered them, "Watch out, that no one misleads you. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will mislead many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pains. "Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations because of my name. Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many, and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. But the person who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:3-14
Is this the 'end times'? Honestly, who knows. I see some Christian talking heads discussing it and saying "this is it", but they don't know any more than you or I know. The End is coming, I know that much, whether these are signs of it or not. What stood out to me when reading and thinking about this passage again was the sentence "Make sure that you are not alarmed". God is the one who is shaking things up, and not because He is some kind of sadist, but because He wants us to reach for him. He is the one who is going to bring about the return of the Kingdom...because its on his time, He must be the one who brings it about. In His great mercy, He has told us that before its too late, he is going to give us one good last shake...
"And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth nations will be in distress, anxious over the roaring of the sea and the surging waves. People will be fainting from fear and from the expectation of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Song of Man arriving in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Luke 21:25-28
I was thinking about what to pray. I could pray that God would stop this war, but what if its part of His will? If this is indeed the beginning of the shaking, the beginning of the birth pains, then it must happen. Praying that it be stopped, in that scenario, would be praying against the return of God's kingdom. I think a better prayer would be for the people of Ukraine (and Russia, for that matter), that in the midst of terrible suffering and hardship, they would surrender themselves to God, that they would repent and believe. After the debacle in Afghanistan several months ago, I remember hearing reports that many were coming to faith because of the difficulty and suffering with the return of the Taliban. I imagine something similar is happening within Ukraine now.
As for the rest of us - let us pray that our hearts would not be consumed with worry and anxiety, that we would not give ourselves to fear of what is to come. "But the person who endures to the end will be saved." Let us fix our eyes on the Gospel and upon Jesus and His return. Whether this is 'the end' or not, that sounds like a great posture for a Disciple anyway.
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