lulled to sleep

The Spirit Of The Age is the title of the article I just read. Here's the link. I'm posting it because I don't want to lose this because it speaks of my great fear - of how we are lulled into sleep and we are missing what is important.

http://odb.org/2012/12/03/the-spirit-of-the-age/

Every age has its own thoughts, ideas, and values that influence the culture, the “spirit of the age.” It is the kind of growing consensus that morally lulls us to sleep, gradually causing us to accept society’s latest values.

The apostle Paul called this corrupting atmosphere the “course of this world.”

Describing the lives of the believers at Ephesus before they encountered Christ, he said that they were “dead in trespasses and sins” and “walked according to the course of this world” (Eph. 2:1-2). This is the world’s peer pressure—a satanically inspired system of values and ideas that cultivates a lifestyle that is independent of God.

Jesus intends for us to live in the world (John 17:15), so worldly influence is nearly impossible to escape. But He’s given us His Word to so permeate our thinking that we don’t have to become conformed to the world’s values (Rom. 12:1-2). Instead, God helps us walk in His light (Eph. 5:8), in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25), in love (Eph. 5:2), in truth (3 John 4), and in Christ (Col. 2:6).

As we walk in God’s power and spend time in His Word, He gives us the strength to live according to kingdom values and not the spirit of the age.

 

Father, You have made us alive in Christ and now we
have a new kind of thinking that differs from the world.
Teach us Your kingdom’s values that we might
learn to walk in love. Amen.

Although Christians live in this world,
their allegiance is to heaven.

This was in an email to me from Our Daily Bread.

Powerful words and I am so afraid that this is what has happened to my children, my grandchildren and even to me. But I KNOW that if we stay in His word that we won't fall asleep.

The difference in my life now from what it was even last year is immense. I wake up thinking of God and I go throughout my day with thoughts of Him and I most certainly go to sleep talking with God. Of course, my sleep time is mostly spent in prayer for my family. God gave me this family so I imagine He understands and I also imagine that this is time that He expects me to be talking of the loved ones He paired me with.

God is wonderful. God is amazing. God is love and when I stop to think about just the things I can see with my puny mind - what He has put together so that we find our way back to Him. He is love. That verse where He spreads His wings over us, gathers us like chicks. :)