A Cooling Breeze Blowing

Scripture:

Matt. 24:12 And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.

Observation:

Jesus had been preaching and speaking hard truths to those listening.  Now he began to have a prophetic voice, speaking into the future of the church.  The days would come when there would be an increase of lawlessness.  He was not talking about people outside of the faith, but of those inside the faith.  These are those who have professed to be children of God, they are the ones who will become lawless, turning their backs on the knowledge they had already gained regarding their relationship with God.  The relationship may have been the crux of the matter, for a lack of love and lawlessness seemed to go hand in hand. 

Older language for “grow cold” was “wax cold.”  What it really implied was that a cooling breeze blew over something that had been extremely hot, cooling it down little by little until eventually it was room temperature.  Remember what Jesus had told the expert in the law?  If you had to sum up the law and the prophets it would be to love God and to love others.  Somehow at the very core of everything it meant to be a follower of Jesus Christ was this aspect of relationship with God and with our neighbors.  If love is what grows cold, then it is the very core of Christianity that is affected by the cooling breeze.  It is in loving God and loving neighbor that we are clothed in holiness for holy love is the very nature of the Trinity.  The goal for all of humanity is to be transformed into the image and nature of God — to be a reflection of that love found in the Trinity for this is truly holiness. 

Application:

In the last days a cooling breeze will blow and no longer will God’s people believe in the hot fiery passion of holy love found in an intensely deep relationship with him. 

Lawlessness will abound because his children will be cooled by the constant breezes.

The cool breezes that say….

    You’re busy doing good things. 

    Family has to come first.

    I can have my five minute devotional before I go to bed.

    My kids have to be a part of the sporting events — it will help to shape their character.

    You have a lot of important things to do on weekends — attending church once a month is good 
    enough for you.

    Listening to Christian music in your car on the way to work is a good enough prayer life.
   
And eventually the fervor of our Christian walk will cool down and the love we had for God and for others will have grown cold.  Just like hot wax that is moldable and pliable, when the cool breeze blows over, it becomes hard.  When it needs to be flexible, it can no longer bend for it has become brittle.

Jesus said it would be this way in the end.

Just this past week the former Archbishop of Canterbury predicted the extinction of Christianity.  The cool breezes are blowing over much of the Christian world.  Jesus gave warning and it’s time for us to heed that warning.  When the gentle cool breezes come, sometimes we don’t notice them because they feel good and make us comfortable.  Maybe it’s time for us to put up the warning signs — “Danger, cooling breeze blowing!”  Unless we take preventive action we will find ourselves cold and brittle. 

The good news is that there is a solution.  God hasn’t changed and the hot fire of his love is still present to be lavished on each one of us.  Maybe we just need to commit ourselves to the priority of loving God and loving others.  When this happens the voices of the cooling breezes will be silenced and the overflow of the love of God will consume us and splash over onto those around us.  Jesus said the “love of many will grow cold” — not the love of all.  There is hope in the mighty and powerful love of Jesus.  May the hot fire continue to blow over us today and always.

Prayer:

Lord, may the cooling breezes be powerless in my life.   Amen.