Many of the devices we use today are battery-powered. Our phones, our tablets, our laptops, our remotes, our flashlights, our power tools, and even some of our cars (if you’re the EV type). What these all have in common is the need to be recharged. The battery power only lasts so long before it needs to gain more power from another electrical source. Even gasoline vehicles need to be replenished with fuel in order to continue functioning properly.
Life drains us all. We all need to rest and be recharged. We are not programmed to go 24/7 without interruptions in our schedule or energy level. Even the very closest friends and ministry partners of Jesus (the disciples) needed to separate themselves from the busyness of their work to rest and recharge in order to continue and be effective. That’s not laziness.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we are not invincible—not a single one of us. In fact, the whole idea of Sabbath is to rest from a hard-worked week and enjoy God’s recharging and renewal. Although most of us are not Jewish, the principle of Sabbath rest is still very beneficial. Even in an occupation that you love, rest and routine breaks are still necessary so you can stay on top of your game.
During the times of resting and recharging, allow the Lord to grow you stronger through worship and intimate fellowship with Him. His word will feed you with the spiritual nutrients that you need to thrive. When you feel life draining your battery, get away and prioritize the rest and refreshment that is only found in the Lord. Get recharged!
I’m probably not going to get this exactly right, but there’s a story that has impacted me over the years that deals with the topic of peace. There was a painting contest and each of the artists were commissioned to paint a picture of peace. One of the finalists painted a serene lake that was as smooth as glass, indicating that there was peace in the stillness. I’m sure you can envision this image in your mind’s eye.
The winning entry, however, was not so calm and peaceful on the surface. It was a painting of a storm with waves crashing upon large rocks by the water. Within this picture was a bird who was sitting safely in the hollow of a rock, unaffected by the storm that was raging all around it. The bird appeared to be singing, unfazed by the circumstances. The artist truly captured the most accurate definition of peace.
Genuine peace is not defined by days when everything is going smoothly and there are no problems—very few of those gems exist. The peace that comes from God is a calm reassurance of His Spirit’s presence within us, even when the storms are raging around us and the waves are crashing violently upon our lives. Someone once said that peace is not the absence of conflict or problems, rather it is the presence of God. It doesn’t matter if the world is crumbling all around us, we can have true peace, knowing that we belong to the One who made the world and will always be in control of everything. The forever forecast is this: the Son Reigns. Do you have true peace?
The last 100 years have been great for technology, but bad for theology in many ways. Just in the past couple of decades, look at how humanity has chosen to use the opportunity of having so much information at our fingertips: slander (anonymously on social media), online gambling, covetousness, pride, lust (pornography), laziness (chronic gaming), human trafficking through deception, identity theft, etc. We literally could have reached a massive amount of souls with the gospel if we would’ve properly concentrated our efforts and headed in the right direction!
Don’t get me wrong, many people have used the opportunities of technological advancements in wonderful ways, but do we not expect to give an account for every idle word, whether from our lips or as keyboard warriors? As a whole, we’ve wasted so many opportunities that we’ve been given—it’s truly tragic! I do want to be careful to commend those who have used these tools to further the gospel and share the love of God with others. Sure, they may not get as many clicks and likes, but the Lord will reward them accordingly.
I’m not trying to sound judgy or like a fuddy-duddy guy, but we need to be good stewards of the tools that we have at our disposal. As the human race, we have a unique, unprecedented opportunity, and we would be wise to grab onto it and use it to help spread the message of Jesus around the world! Let’s not misuse our opportunities.
I hate to admit it, but I tend to be wrong a lot more than I would like to be. Even as believers who are trying to grow spiritually and educationally, we still know our limitations and make mistakes. I don’t purposely try to mess up, but sometimes it’s inevitable based on the fact that I am human. Now, we could either use that as an excuse to live a sloppy life, or we could harness it as the momentum needed to try to be more attentive in all areas of life and hopefully make fewer mistakes.
Some people will make you think that they are perfect, but we all know the truth: until we get to heaven, we will all struggle with our humanity, which naturally makes mistakes. If we practice humility, we will be willing to admit our mistakes without excusing them or trying to justify them. This past Sunday, I made a mistake when I was preaching, and didn’t realize it until later. No one told me, and I hope very few people caught it, but I made the statement that Lydia was the first Gentile convert in the early church, rather than the first Christian convert in Europe (Cornelius, I apologize). Hopefully everyone listening understood what I was trying to say.
Even though my mistake wasn’t on purpose, I may still have to face a barrage of fact checkers (but hopefully not). Let’s be humble enough to admit our mistakes and be willing to learn from them when, not if, they happen. Think about it from the perspective of our witness for Christ: people who are longing to see the truth in us aren’t looking for arrogant, perfect, religious examples; they are looking for people who are humble, sincere, who love them, and can introduce them to peace with God and forgiveness for all of life’s mistakes.
Like most Americans, sometimes my garage gets cluttered and I have to get rid of the junk in order to maximize the space. It’s not that the square footage shrinks; it’s that the pile of unuseful material grows until it begins to crowd the area and is finally addressed. Just the other day, I took a load of trash and junk items to the burn pile. Needless to say, when I pull my car into the garage, it feels like there’s so much more room—maybe because there is!
In our hearts, we tend to allow the world’s junk to influence us and take the place of that which is spiritual in nature. This imbalance causes us to be ineffective in our Christian walk by allowing the clutter to fester and distract us from pursuing holiness. Just as a garage cannot fulfill its mission to house cars if it’s filled with household junk, our lives cannot fulfill the command to be filled and led by the Holy Spirit when we keep filling if with futile junk.
The great thing about being an avid fan of burn piles is that once the clutter is gone, there’s no getting it back. In just a matter of minutes, it becomes a pile of ashes and can no longer junk up my garage, or any room, for that matter. Let’s be sure to get rid of the things in our heart that don’t belong. Once we do, we’ll have plenty of room for the stuff that is holy and good.
Genesis 16:13; Matthew 25:37-40
Cameras, cameras everywhere! I always assume wherever I go that there are probably surveillance cameras. I’m okay with that because I’m hopeful that I won’t exercise bad behavior or do something embarrassing. Of course, we know that God is always watching, but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing because He sees the good that we do as well, and rewards us accordingly. Rather than merely being a frightening thought, it can actually be very comforting to know that He sees us wherever we go, and is watching whatever we do.
In the same way that we as parents are proud whenever we see our children do good things, and are disappointed when they disobey, God is pleased when we are obedient, yet it grieves Him we sin. He sees it all. However, as believers, we are not motivated to do what’s right because we are afraid of Him; we aim to please Him because we love Him and delight in obeying His commands. When we live from the standpoint of relationship rather than religion, being obedient will bring us great joy and peace.
Think about it this way: that kind word you said to a stranger, that $10.00 that you gave to a homeless person, or that mess you cleaned up that you didn’t make—God sees it all! In fact, He even has a Name that fits this particular attribute: El Roi (the God who sees). So, the next time you realize that your whole life is probably being caught on video, remember that God sees everything we do, and those small acts of kindness done in Jesus’ Name won’t go unnoticed. He’s always watching—take comfort that you’re never off His radar.
One of the billboards that I see from time-to-time advertises a certain insurance company. Their gimmick is that there’s no gimmick: no jingles and no mascots—no gimmicks. Well, let me just tell you that I can’t help but thinking about their non-slogan every time I see the ad. I mean, when I think about an insurance company that has no jingles or mascots, that’s the only one that comes to mind—not Farmer’s, not saving 15% or more, and not the one who is on my side. (Sorry in advance for getting those jingles stuck in your head :)
It seems like just about every business these days uses gimmicks in order to grow the bottom line, and in the business world, that’s completely expected. However, when the church starts resorting to gimmicks in place of Bible truth, the result is tragic. I was once at a pastor’s conference and I heard Pastor H. B. Charles say, “In leaning over to reach the world, the church has fallen in.” We don’t need to offer the world more of what they already have; the things that fail to satisfy them—we need to show them something different; something called “grace”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against creative outreach ideas, but I am against reducing God to the gimmicks of men, in order to make Him seem more appealing. He doesn’t need our help to make Him seem cool and hip, but we are called to make Him known. If we live out His life-changing grace for others to see, and faithfully represent the truth of His word, we won’t need any gimmicks. The word of God is sufficient, and when we model its truth, the result will be that others will be drawn to Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit working in our lives.
I pass a lot of Universalist “churches” in my travels, and just the other day, I saw this on one of their digital signs: “Adapting to a changing world.” Because I know a little bit about what they believe (and don’t believe), that quote stood out like a sore thumb, and not in a good way. If we are discerning, we will understand what is meant by this statement. While God is gracious and desires that everyone will believe on Him for salvation, we know that everyone will not, and that is the tragic truth.
As believers, we are called to reach the world for Christ, but we are never called to adapt to a secular worldview. In fact, Paul wrote very clearly that we are not to be conformed to the world system, rather we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. How does this work? Is it the power of positive thinking? Is it a scale that weighs in favor of good as opposed to bad? No. The only way for our mind to be transformed is to be yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit and fill your brain with the things of God.
We can understand the world’s struggles, either by observation or through past personal experiences, but we must be very cautious to not adapt to things that go against God’s word. As we close, I want to address the question posed in the title: is adapting to a changing world a good thing? Absolutely not, because it implies that we become conformed to that which opposes God’s design for humanity. We are called to love the people of the world in order to introduce them to Christ, but we are not supposed to love the world system. We are not to take the shape of our culture, but instead, we are called to shape the culture for Christ.
I frequently find myself driving on roads that I’ve never driven on before. Sometimes it’s dark or foggy, so I have to carefully navigate my way to my destination. One of the ways I utilize my GPS is by watching how the road on the map turns and how the speed limit changes in order to adjust my speed and steering accordingly. Another way I depend on my GPS is to simply trust its guidance to my next destination.
More often than not, I have people asking me where I’m headed next. I generally respond that I have no idea and that I will just put the next address in my GPS and let it take me there. That can be pretty scary, especially if I end up in the mountains of Vermont or New Hampshire with little to no cell signal. The satellite feature on my phone only works for text messages, not the navigation, so it can be a little bit anxiety-inducing at times.
If we are obedient to the will of God, He is going to take us down roads that we’ve never traveled and to destinations that we never knew existed. Trusting Him in those “dark and foggy” times will increase our faith and strengthen our dependence upon Him. If we are following His directions, we may not always understand why He’s taking us on certain routes, but we can be sure that He knows the way. The application is far easier to comprehend than it is to carry out, but with His power and leading, we can faithfully follow Him, no matter where He calls us to go.
I have a friend who does a lot of hiking. I think he would agree that there are numerous benefits such as exercise, better blood flow, and getting to be in the middle of God’s beautiful canvas of creation. However, one of the greatest blessings of being out in nature is that you can clear your mind and enjoy the solitude and simplicity that drowns out the many distractions of life.
I know the waterfalls, flowers, creeks, and trees are beautiful to see, but nothing compares to the reality of being in nature while having a conversation with its Creator. While there are many different outlets to help us manage the stress of life, this is one that doesn’t cost anything and requires only the effort of being present. Our focus returns as we set aside our agendas and schedules and simply focus on communion with our Lord.
The peace that accompanies having our mind fixed on Jesus cannot be compared with anything else in this world. This is just my opinion, but I think a good spiritual discipline is taking a walk at a park or in the woods with the goal of being alone with God, apart from any distractions, sharing your heart with Him, and experiencing His peace…away from the screens and to-do lists. Some might see it as wasted time, but I see it as a valuable investment in our walk with God.
Contact email: PastorJDM@outlook.com
© 2025 John Mallonee
