No, I don’t mean the US government, although it is becoming clear that they are indeed watching you and me.
I’m talking about the people you come in contact with daily thru business and personal interactions, phone conversations, text messages, emails, social websites and all manner of human contact.
Sometimes I have wondered if a possible reason why God allows some of the chaos that seems to be entering my personal life more and more frequently these days, is so that I might be used to reach someone else who is watching me. Someone is watching to see if I will give up on God in frustration over the endless attacks from the evil one. Someone is watching to see if I will get so angry that I have a cussing fit, throw things, or react in some other inappropriate or unholy way to some situation.
I feel as though I have been involved in a real battle lately. It sure feels to me like I am being personally attacked a lot these days. I know that I am not alone but sometimes I think we feel so bogged down and burdened with the awfulness that seems to surround us in almost every aspect of life on this earth, that it becomes tempting to just close in on yourself and become detached from the rest of the world, grow depressed, frustrated, angry, anxious, fearful, weary (oh, so weary) and oh so ready to get out of here and meet Jesus in the air.
You know, maybe I have just led a sheltered life or something but twenty or thirty years ago or so, it seems to me that you hardly ever met anyone who knew a drug addict personally (for example). Now though, it seems there is rampant drug addiction in almost every family, mine included. There isn’t time or space here to even come close to listing all the horribleness and pain and destruction that follows and surrounds all drug addicts and those that love them.
Suffice it to say here that loving an addict is NOT for sissies. Okay, there, I said it. I let that nasty cat out of the bag, I guess. So if you are thinking that Christians are supposed to be exempt from these kinds of situations in this life, or that if we are “really” faithful, then this type of situation would not find its way into our world.
Wrong!
And as if that were not enough already, just within my immediate family (and many others I’m sure) there’s the serious illness, financial strain due to inability to work, fear of losing employment or businesses going under, fear of economic collapse, fear of losing rights and freedoms and to top it all off, extreme concern over loved ones who might be left behind after the Rapture because they refuse to accept the free gift of salvation being offered to them. Sometimes I feel like I need to organize a “salvation intervention” for some of these folks. Hmm…I got to thinking about this as a real possibility and found an interesting article on RR titled, “Intercession Every Christian’s Duty.”
Back to the discussion at hand: People are watching you and people are watching me. All sorts of people are listening and watching. It’s easy to get all wrapped-up in whatever the immediate situation is and forget that there are people who are watching how you will react to every aggravating or unpleasant or scary situation. Or even how you will react to a tempting situation.
If you are a professing born again believer, believe me, they ARE watching you. And I know that many of you have heard the old saying before, “You may be the only Bible someone else ever reads.” We cannot control most of these issues and situations and sometimes battles that come our way. But we most certainly can and must control how we react to each one.
So, until we finally get to look upon His face, hang in there, brothers and sisters and know that you are not alone. And remember that others are watching you…and that Jesus is watching over you.