God’s Power in Hard Times

I visited a church in El Salvador where the average income of the members is four dollars a day. I was astonished to learn that the people give two of their earned dollars to charity. When I asked them why they give so much, all of them answered, “Because Jesus told us to give to the poor.” When I pointed out that they were in need, they responded, “Oh, no! We’re blessed, and we want to bless others in return.”

These are not hearts that are unholy or swollen with conceit. Can we say the same of ourselves? As Christians, are we eager to bless others when we have little in our own accounts, or do we shrink back when it comes to blessing as we have been blessed?

Hard times will reveal the condition of our hearts. It is estimated that less than 50 percent of Americans identify themselves as believers of some kind. Many check “none” as their religious affiliation. It is estimated that within a decade, this generation will be even more lost to secularism and godlessness, and intolerance toward Christianity will only increase.

What are we to do with this? The writer of Hebrews answers, “Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings” (Hebrews 10:32, ESV).

God turned those early Christians’ sufferings into tools for gospel power: “Sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction…you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come…but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:33-39).

This is a difficult passage, but there is good news embedded here. God is telling us that in the midst of the growing darkness, he is doing something glorious. He will raise up a last-days church as a testimony to his power in hard times.