The Virus of the Last Day
Whenever we have a world phoneme, we start hearing a common phrase that initiates fears in people's hearts; we live in the last days or at the end of time. Things such as coronavirus, earthquakes, and tornadoes can instill new discussion across social media. People get worried that the time has come, as predicted in the Bible. Unfounded worrying is detrimental to our health, especially since there is proof that this fear and worry are meaningless. Jesus tells us no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. We don't know if this is the end of times, but we know today we face coronavirus, etc., but people easily forget Ebola, yellow fever, and all the long lists of previous pandemics that affect our world. This virus is not new, but we are not living at the end of time; we live in the last days. There is a difference; the previous day will be difficult because of people, not natural disasters or viruses. 2nd Timothy 3:1-2 states:
"You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days, there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money."
Today we are fearful and worried, but it is not the virus that should concern us; it is people who have lost their faith in God. People who LOVE only themselves. When anyone loves only themselves, everything goes wrong around them. Love makes the world go around, not fear. When we push fear at the top of our headline, we can get caught up in caring more for ourselves than others. According to 2nd Timothy 3, when we are fearful, we will become proud, arrogant, abusive without even knowing it, disobedient to our parents and those in authority. Finally, we become ungrateful and heartless. These behaviors generate from self-love, which becomes destructive when it cannot love others. Jesus said we fulfill all commandments when we love our neighbors as ourselves.
We love others by:
1. Stop worrying about things we cannot control and pray for people who have anxiety and depression, a natural outcome for worrying about uncontrollable activities.
2. We watch who you are becoming. We can quickly become the people we are trying not to become when we focus too much on ourselves. So, check on your neighbors. Shift your focus from what is going on around you and seek to try instead to help others. Helping others is the fastest way to eliminate fear.
3. We guard our heart because our life depends on it. Guard your heart by protecting your thinking the moment negative thought comes to your mind. Please get rid of it and bring it under Christ Jesus's authority, so it does not take root in you. Then pray and ask God to keep you from becoming ungodly, pray, and ask God to show you how to practice godliness daily because it would be hard for you to avoid yourselves.
The good news is that everyone can avoid being consumed by self-love by loving God more than we love ourselves. When we love God first, it gets easier to love others. The most important commandment is the Love of the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind. When the Love of God fills you, it becomes hard for any hatred to come from you; it becomes easy to love others when the Love of God fills you. But how do we love God with all our hearts and still have room to love people? When we love God with all our hearts, our heart belongs to God; He loves people through us. I am inviting you to give your heart to God today, so the virus of the Last day doesn't infect you.