We are told in the scriptures that in the last days, the love of many shall wax cold. This is one of the most prominent signs that the end times are upon us and the return of our Messiah is near.
But what about you and I? Does this love of others waxing cold effect you? It has effected me lately.
Do those you have loved and trusted for years seem strangely different to you?
If so, then this page is for you.
Dear friends, you are not alone. Just know that other than myself, there are those who I have spoken to over this past year who have gone through similar trials, and it just verifies to me that this prophecy is being fulfilled. I am finding people that I have been close to all of my life and yet they seem like strangers to me. Why would this be? There is a lesson to be learned in this for us.
The hard truth is that Strangers are sometimes are more compassionate and loving than those we have been the closest to.
I hope that by the time you finish reading this page, you won't feel discouraged and downhearted, but you will have some hope and come away from this having been helped.
Coldness in place of warmness
There is a coldness where once there was warmness in the hearts of others. Instead of bountiful love, there is a lack of love. I recognize a lack of caring among others in general. Where once there was a desire to do the "honorable" thing towards others, now it seems as if it's alright to do whatever one wants regardless of the feelings of others.
"What is in it for ME"? seems the general attitude of more and more people. If there were a perfectly descriptive word for it, I could write it down. But there isn't one at the moment.
The closest is the scripture verse "The love of many shall wax cold". Those words spoken by the Son of God, they truly hit home for so many of us.
And something recently happened to me concerning this scripture as it has to do with my own life only days ago. What happened was an enlightening experience for me and it really helped me through these recent tough times.
Own dear friends and family members
Moving along, I had been having a time lately. I had been going through some issues of betrayal. These betrayal issues concerned those who are closest to me in my life.
I felt betrayed, used, lied to and manipulated all at once.
And I am not the type to have me a pity party, *I am more prone to having one for someone else* but honestly, it was as though on top of all of these things happening in my life, my feelings just counted for nothing.
Those whom I thought I knew SO well had turned out to be those strangers whom I knew nothing about. Had you tried to tell me last year that even half of the pain I am feeling now was going to come upon me, I would have doubted you and would have told you that you were mistaken.
This is how firm my conviction was concerning the ones who had hurt me. I thought I knew them so well. But this was soon to change. All of my beliefs were being shaken to the core. Not about God, but about people, even family members. This went on for some time.
I was angry, hurt, frustrated, disbelieving, and at times would not be consoled, not by anyone. I may have ACTED like I was fine, but I was not fine. And here's the bottom line, Even though I am a Christian, that doesn't mean that once I go through tests and trials, I can just snap out of it. It doesn't mean that I am on automatic and can just turn my emotions on and off as I feel like it. Come to think of it, wouldn't that be wonderful in times like these? We could just tune out or push down the hurt we get placed on us from others and go on with life. If only it were that simple. Sadly, it is not.
I had read the psalms so many times in my life, but it doesn't matter how often you read the bible, you can read it, put it away, go back and pick it up and get totally renewed and inspired by the exact same passages that you read years or months previous to that time.
What happened?
Even though going to God's word was not the first thing I did (I was just too hurt and didn't want to read the bible at that time I confess) some time later I did do that. I picked up my bible, opened it and it rested on the book of the psalms.
I read where David said ."Even my close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me" (Psalm 41:9).
Then there is Psalms 35. I read this chapter and it was then that I felt a bit of peace when up to that point there had only been grief and sorrow.
Have you ever felt this way? The feelings that expressed in this psalm to the Lord?
35:12 They repay me with evil for the good I do. I am sick with despair.
35:13 Yet when they were ill, I grieved for them. I even fasted and prayed for them, but my prayers returned unanswered.
35:14 I was sad, as though they were my friends or family, as if I were grieving for my own mother.
35:15 But they are glad now that I am in trouble; they gleefully join together against me. I am attacked by people I don't even know; they hurl slander at me continually.
I read Job 19;14 "My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me".
There were many passages that I could relate to. David was always crying out to God for help when these struggles and depressive feelings came.
He knew he couldn't get help in his own strength, on his own.
I, in my own strength can do nothing. Even now, still reeling from the blows of it all, I can not do one thing about it. And I know it's totally ridiculous, but at first when something like this happens and you are hurt by others in an extreme way, and you wonder why the persecution is even coming, and even though you know what the bible says about persecution, you want to be able to do something. It's as if there must be something you can do.
And this is not even addressing the why of it all.
But I'm going to try to do that here:
Why was Joseph hated by his brothers? The brother's were jealous of Joseph
Why did Jobs wife tell him at his most sorrowful moments to "Curse God and die"? Because of HER OWN weakness and lack of faith in God.
Why is love and goodness repaid with evil? Because there are people on this earth who do not do good to those who do good to them, they care nothing about God's word and how it relays to them to do good to others and to pray for those who despite fully use them.
Very simply, these people did NOT know the God we serve, therefore they did not treat people the way God told them to either.
But we learn as we go along and it is only through trials and troubles that we get to that place in which we yield to God and depend less on self. What good does it do for all of our crying, worrying, pity parties, etc?
I learned as I am sure so many of you have, that in the end, if I resort to those things, nothing is better. And the hurt doesn't have a way of just floating away from us. If I hadn't let God get in the mix of my mess and keep a handle on it, I would have still been wallowing in my pain, wasting my life and time, and crying out for justice!
In the end, I asked God to forgive these people. Even as I am forgiven.
I do not hate or even dislike them, I DO dislike what they have done though. In times like these, we are truly tested of the Lord. He does not tempt any person with evil, nor did he want these trials and heartache to come upon me, yet they came. But in them, he truly did make a way of escape. The way of escape came in the form of faith and his word.
It is in these circumstances that we truly learn what it is to be humble and to wait upon the Lord for justice, comfort, peace of mind and of spirit.
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