-Strength for Today- "Signs of the Times." - Matthew 16:1-3.
If you look to the horizon and see dark, billowing storm clouds forming, you know you should grab an umbrella before leaving the house. You don’t need much wisdom to “discern such a sign. Even the Pharisees and the Scribes sound “read” the signs of the weather, but Jesus considered them “absolutely clueless,” when it came to “discerning” the “obvious signs of the times.” Matthew 16: 1-3.
They kept abreast of everything that was going on, “religiously,” but their minds weren’t open to God’s “prophetic words,” concerning the “signs of the times.” They correctly “discerned” time’s “effect” to “this present world,” but they came seeking an outward “miraculous manifestation from heaven.” Miracles are an important part of God’s plan, but they’re s “smaller assignment,” when it comes to “fulfilling God’s plan.
I say this because there’s no place in the Bible where “miracles alone saved anyone.” Because as the late Rev. Dr. G.M. Joseph once said, “miracles serve only to prove, or show the genuine manifestation of God’s “spiritual intent,” by which, the Holy Spirit “illuminates” man’s “sin-darkened mind and heart to God’s “gospel message of salvation”
Yes, we’re seeing “signs of the end times.” But I believe more than ever before that God wants us to “trust Him,” and “surrender our will to His will.” And when we do that, He will “...hear from heaven, and forgive their sins and heal their land” - 2 Chronicles 7:14. So, God wants you to trust in Him and surrender your will to his will. Even during these “perilous times,” God is in control. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope”.
So, regardless of what the “spiritually blind are saying,” the Bible says that they are “...blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel,” (Matthew 23:24), in other words, they’re blind to the "signs of the times,” and are “willfully,” and “religiously; instigating the truth of God’s “prophetic plan and purpose. But in truth, Jesus has given us His wonderful promise, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” - John 8:12.
Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD