Finding Unity Among Division
| Remember when we said 2021 could not come fast enough? We rang in the new year with hopes that life would soon return to normal. Here we are eight months later, and we have been hit with the reality that the days we live in are far from ordinary. These days seem more like a bad movie scene that is on repeat. We turn on the news and see that covid cases continue to rise. You have the masked and non-masked, the vaccinated and non-vaccinated crowds verbally going at it. In disbelief, we have watched as the events of Afghanistan have unfolded right before our eyes. Although these are all different events, they all have the potential to be polarizing and divisive. I think you would agree with me when I say there are no shortages of opinions on these hot topics. Everywhere we turn, there is the potential for division. But from a Biblical perspective, it all makes sense to me. The Bible tells us that “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8). If he can separate us from the herd, he can have a field day disrupting both your personal growth and Kingdom growth. God is not a God of division but a God of multiplication. It is okay to have friends who vote different from you, have a different skin color than you, and even have different opinions on masks and vaccinations than you do. In the Kingdom of God, the only unifier is not our opinions; the only unifier is the blood of Jesus! In John 17, we find Jesus thinking about the disciples that would believe on Him through the witness of the Eleven. He requested two things for them from His Father: unity and glorification. Look at what Jesus had to say in John 17:20-21; 23 20 “…I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one… so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Jesus wanted the “unity” among believers to be so great and so clear that “the world” would believe (“know”) Jesus’ message. The world would also see that God had poured out His love on believers as well as Jesus. Notice that Jesus implied that He would indwell believers as the Father indwelt Him (“I in them and You in Me”). What if we could be the generation that becomes the answer to his prayer? I pray that we do not get caught up in the division that is around but instead live out the values of our Father in Heaven. Romans 2:3-4 tells that the kindness of the Lord leads us to redemption. |