What’s Right With Our World?

G.K. Chesterton, the prolific British author once posed the question, “what’s wrong with the world?” and left many stunned when he answered, “I am!”

In our day if you would ask that question on social media I would imagine very few would respond, “I am!” We live in an cultural climate where it is everyone else’s fault but our’s. We are quick to place judgement on the other person believing we have the truth and if only others would see it “my way” things would work out right.

But Chesterton is exactly right, the biggest problem in our world is you and me. Before we can judge others we must take a deep long look at our own heart and see it as the prophet Jeremiah diagnosed it:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” 17:9

This past week Patty and I attended a prayer event in our area led mainly by young people. The testimonies were moving as many of the teens struggled with mental health issues which led to substance abuse, destructive behavior, and even suicide attempts.

Their answer to their struggles was so encouraging, as they stated encountering a Savior who could heal their broken, sin stained heart was what brought hope. One of the students found Jesus through caring foster parents who poured out the unconditional love of Jesus upon him. Another student experienced forgiveness, healing, and the gift of God’s grace through a youth group he attended.

As I listened to these miracles I gazed up at the blue sky with puffy white clouds dancing about, I thought about how the wrongs of this world are made right. Perhaps it is when we come to see our own broken, sinful, heart condition for what it is,”desperately sick,” that a transformation can begin.

Understanding the issues deep within my heart points me to the One who has the power to heal with His perfect heart of love and forgiveness. Our loving Father sent His son Jesus to this world in order to break the power of my sinful heart and turn it right again. In Jesus’ very first sermon He preaches from Isaiah 61 declaring a new day has come where He is making all things right again:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed Me to be hope for the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, and new eyes for the blind, and to preach to prisoners, ‘you are free! I have come to share the message of Jubilee, for the time of God ‘s great acceptance has begun.” Lk. 4:18-19

What’s right with our world? I witnessed it again the other night, in those testimonies of King Jesus healing wounded hearts and making them whole by bringing young people into the Father’s Kingdom. I was reminded in that beautiful out door sanctuary how the Spirit of God is on the move and it will not be stopped until the whole world is filled with His glory.