Pray… Come to the aid of your church, Lord Jesus, for godly men are rarely found there. The faithful are disappearing from within her fellowships. One man speaks falsehood to another, and naive souls are deceived by flattering lips and deceptive words. O God, protect us from deceiving words and tongues that boast of great things, for those who deceive and are deceived believe they will gain victory through their cunning and lies. They think they have a right to say whatever they wish, and there is no ruler over the affairs of men. They say, “Lord, Lord,” and yet do not do what You command. They think they are rich and in need of nothing, yet their deeds are lawless and their hearts lukewarm. They tickle one another’s ears and, turning away from the truth, they embrace myths and teach as doctrine the precepts of men. They exalt the strong and lord themselves over the weak. They flaunt worldly riches and suppose the gospel to be a means of great gain. Having become futile in their thoughts, their hearts have been darkened. The wicked strut about freely when vile practices are exalted among the sons of men.
Because of the devastation of the naïve, the lost sheep left wandering in Your house, and the groanings in Your church that have resulted, arise O Lord! Set the lowly in the safety for which they long and expose and humble the proud. Your words are pure words—they are as silver tried in a fiery furnace: refined and pure. Speak to and preserve Your true church, O God! Yes, forever guide and preserve Your remnant from the evil of the chaff growing up amongst the wheat.
Consider… Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture! So often we are repulsed by evil people prospering in our society. Yet, do we feel the same way about such practices going on in the church? When those who say they believers are more concerned for their financial well-being than their spiritual well-being, and their teachers excuse worldly lifestyles for the sake of their own riches, all in the name of grace, does it not concern us? When the vast majority in the church say, “Lord, Lord” with their lips every Sunday, yet deny Him in their deeds the remainder of every other day of the week, do we rise up against the injustice? It seems all is excused these days as long as we maintain an image of godliness by being seen in church on Sundays. Jesus said the world would know us as His disciples by what went on in the body. He prayed the world would know He was sent to us by the purity and unity witnessed there. When the frustrations of trying to live with integrity in a dishonest society, and a church looking far too much like it, threaten to get the best of us we must make a conscience decision to strengthen community and live as spiritual people. Otherwise, we will be numbered among the rapidly-disappearing faithful. We must speak the pure words of truth, call out the false teachers for the sake of the flock, forsake worldliness, and preserve personal godliness, and then take that example to the church of God.
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