Matthew 24:1-14    Signs of Christ’s Return

 Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. ² And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”³ As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. ⁶ You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. ⁸ But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.⁹ “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. ¹⁰ At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. ¹² Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. ¹⁴ This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

No you are not reading yesterdays post. I wanted to look again at this passage to see another aspect in our preparing for the coming times and the times we are in. Yesterday we looked at the warning about cold love and saw that the answer to that, the way to prepare ourselves for these times was to love the Lord our God with all our heart,soul and mind. This is important also becuse as you read the description of the end times or if you indeed watch the TV news or read about what's going on in the world today we see that the end times, and these times are a scary time to live. Anxiety disorders are at an all time high in this country. Statistically about 18% of the population is diagnosed and treated for some form of anxiety. That doesn't take in to account those who self medicate with alchohol, tobacco, other drugs or habits. Anxiety, worry, is a reaction to or a result of fear.

Fear is one of the greatest evils that comes into this world through the gates of hell. We know that Jesus said in Matthew 16 that He would give us the keys to the kingdom of heaven, so the gates of hell will not be able to stand against His church built on the foundation that He is the Christ. 

Fear and fearfulness continues to increase in the world. It is a primary force of evil in our times. Terrorism builds on the principle of fear. Terrorist don't attack strategic political or military targets, they attack innocent public targets to increase fear and anxiety in order to disrupt society. Scripture says, in 1 John 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear... Perfect love cast out fear. What is perfect love?

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

John 15:13  Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 

God's love, Christ's love is perfect love and it is a kingdom key to overcoming fear. Remember the first and greatest commandment, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and the second commanment based on the first, to love your neighbor. These are responses that we have to the perfect love of God. 1 John 4:19 says, " We love, because He first loved us."

We need to understand also that while "perfect love casts out fear", the opposite of fear in the spirit is faith. It has been said correctly that fear is believing more in the things we don't want that in the things we do want. When we are fearful and anxious we are believing that the worst will come to pass rather than trusting for the best. This can be rooted in two seperate things. First it can be rooted in the fact that there is something that we are still holding on to, something we have not yet surrendered to God. Whether it is a material thing, a person or a relationship the first key to getting past our fear of loss is to surrender it completely to God. Once we've surrendered it, it is no longer ours so we can't fear losing it. What better place to put that thing or person than in the hands of God. The second thing that causes us to fear rather than have faith is a loss of focus. We need to remember that Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed could move a mountain. So we don't need large faith. We need to have our faith centered in and focused on Jesus.

In Hebrews 12:2 it says,  "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father, after going to the cross in His act of perfect love. We fix our eyes on Him whose perfect love gives us perfect faith.

Today, whatever has you  anxious and fearful, whatever mountain or stormy sea you face don't surrender in fear to that thing, rather surrender the thing to God. Then fix your eyes on Jesus and waik in the fullness of faith found in the perfect love of God.