Still Need to Move to Need

Good sermons keep coming back to remind you of what's true when you start to lose track. So it is with one of my favorites, one given by John Piper in 1997 from Hebrews 13. I blogged about it over a year ago, and noted how apt it was after a run of abundance and ease.

It occurs to me that the message is no less relevant today, when so many are struggling through the effects of a challenged economy. Comfort, it seems, is a seductive god both during feast and famine. When we're flush, our sense that life is mission is dulled; and when we're faint, our instinct is to grab all the more tightly what comforts we can still claim.

But, even on this side of glory, do not hundreds of millions struggle under the weight of crushing poverty, in places like Zimbabwe and Mexico City and Bangladesh? And is not God preparing unimaginably wonderful blessings for those who forgo earthly treasures for heavenly ones? Should not then our oomph to move from comfort to need be all the more in such a time as this?

It is thus my prayer for myself, my family, my church, my city, my country, my generation. For the good of our souls, and with eternity at stake, may we be ever mindful to be generous, alert, and engaged; to move with Jesus from comfort to need.