He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it (Matthew 10:37-39).
When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8b).
Early morning, December 17, 2018, I gained a new understanding of faith. I had recently been reflecting on how times had become so bad, and I wondered what I would do should someone attack my loved ones. We often hear that we have a responsibility to protect our loved ones (a duty we all take seriously), but at what price and to what point? There is a place where we can enter into love of family more than love of God. We must never love anyone, even our own children, more than we love the command of God. It is heart-wrenching even to think of this! If I love father or mother, son or daughter, more than Him, I will do whatever works out to their benefit rather than God’s. This shows that I am unworthy of the Lord’s love. In Luke 18:8b, Jesus asks, “when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” I used to say without hesitation, “He will if I’m alive,” but it takes Biblical faith to trust the Lord in the midst of our present dilemmas. Could times become so bad that we lose faith, that even we, the people of God, would trust our man-made solutions more than God? When the Son of Man comes will He really find the people of God loving and trusting Him more than themselves?
Let us love Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul. Does this mean that we must live beyond the ordinary, beyond the realm of human reasoning and ingenuity? Our God-given faith is much greater than human reason! It trusts Him even when everything in us seemingly cries out for the contrary! Is the Lord throwing down the gauntlet (challenge)? If so, what should be our response?
Pastor Don