I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made the heaven and earth.

Psalm121:1-2, KJV

While there can be no question that we live in unsettled times, we should not permit these uncertainties to cause us to lose our focus. Life has always had its ups and downs, and it is likely that this is one of those genuinely hard periods that come up from time to time. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that our problems will just go away because there are too many innocent people who will suffer if we do.

On the other hand, it does no good at all to be be a pessimist. Pessimists have a habit of blaming all of life's woes on others and then expecting them to take care of it. Pessimists also have a habit of murmuring and complaining about everything, and we know how well that worked out for God's chosen people when they left Egyptian captivity - they had to wander in a wilderness for forty years of suffering, and then they died.

But what can we do? We have leaders who are clearly enamored with wicked behavior. When presented with the choice between uniting the people to work together to cure society's problems or dividing the people so that they will create even more problems, they choose division over unity every time. We have a perversion that has just seemed to blanket our world in which morally deviant persons are given priority over our innocent children. The drug problem has become so rampant that large cities are being taken over with what appears to be more of a scene from some horror movie, than the pleasant and thriving places they once were.

So, what is the solution? The prophet Micah told us nearly 2,500 years ago, He said that God has shown us what is good, and what He requires: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). The writer of the 121st Psalm also gave us the understanding that when times are too difficult for us to handle on our own, that God Himself would be our help. We have always had difficult times in this world, for human nature will never change. Some will seek God, and some will not. Those who don't will always be a problem to those who do seek Him. 

Our part, then, is to not lose focus. God still expects us to try and help the wicked towards repentance, while at the same time protecting the innocent. When the wicked refuse to stop harming the innocent, then we have to do something to stop them. On our own this problem would be too much for us to handle, but we are not on our own. We just have to lift our eyes up and see that God is there to handle everything that we cannot. 

God does not expect you and I to solve all of the world's problems, but He does expect us to do our part. That part will require wisdom because doling out justice while at the same time being merciful is tricky. But if we will do our best to find out how He expects us to live and then do it, then He will take care of everything else. We do live in difficult times. They are more difficult than anything I have seen in my sixty plus years on this earth. Alone, we are just not going to be able to handle these challenges. But, if we do not lose focus and will keep our eyes on the Lord, we are going to be okay. In fact we will be more than just "okay", for heaven awaits us at the end of these difficult times if we will just not lose our faithfulness and if we will continue to keep our focus on the only One who can really help.