Look to Christ 

   “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed.  If you look within, you’ll be depressed.  But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.” (Corrie Ten Boom) 

   As Christians, we live in a world that is alien to us.  Evil is everywhere and God is pushed aside at every opportunity by society.  There seems to be little to give us hope and rest.

   I know of no place in the world where one could look and not be dismayed to some degree.  There are wars, atrocities committed against those who disagree with each other, murders, abortions, euthanasia.  There is no Garden of Eden, it was lost a long time ago.

   When I look within I see the evil I’ve done in the past, and the evil temptations Satan would have me commit in the present and in the future.  No matter how I try, I can never be without sin, it is as if sin is in my DNA.

   How can I reconcile what I see in the world and what is evident within myself with the love of God, a God who would send His only Son into the world to die for my sins?  How can there be this much love and why is it given to me, a sinner?

   What is necessary is to accept that there will be evil in the world and even within myself.  This is the price of original sin, it stains humanity for now and forever.  Somehow I must look past this fact and look only to the Lord.  I must get to the point where the focus and the priority is Jesus; all else must come after that.

   Amazingly, when I look at life that way, offering all my love to my Lord, I find I have more love to share with my family and friends.  The more I love Him, the more of His love I am given.  There is no limit to love, it is never-ending and eternal; it is not a commodity for which there can ever be a shortage.

   Living in this manner, doing my best to reject the world and it’s ways, doing all I can to live only for God, I find the peace that Jesus promised. 

   “Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.” (John 14: 27)