When you take a road trip, it’s always a good idea to map out your route and avoid any potential hazards, traffic jams, or bottlenecks along the way. 2024 will certainly come, and it will certainly go. Perhaps we should make a few preparations to be ready for the route. Here are some pastoral thoughts to help us remain connected to Jesus in 2024—come what may.

1. Calamities, Distractions, Temptations, and the River of God's Love

The normal fare of calamities, distractions, and temptations could lead us off the path. Jesus warned of the crushing blow that hard times cause for some people. The sudden disaster, scandal, or death of someone we love is a significant challenge. It will come with a lot of pain, but it doesn’t have to knock you off the saddle. Resolve that terrible things happen in the world and that they don't discount God’s goodness and his plan to redeem the earth with his truth and love.  

There will also continue to be a million options to get distracted by—sports, music, entertainment, shopping, socials, hobbies, business, etc. However, none of them are as fulfilling as learning how to live in your Father's great love. Most people probably need a set routine in their day, a time set aside to meet with God in his scriptures, in worship, in prayer, and in community. In a cluttered world, the only way those will happen is if you diligently and forcefully push pause on everything else and spend time with Jesus.

2. Election Year

News flash! 2024 is an election year. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. So, be responsible and bring your faith to the polls. Beyond that, you may need to turn off the noise for lengths of time. The toxic political chatter and party polarization continue to widen. Politics are important, but they won’t solve relational, spiritual, or cultural problems. Read some of our previously written articles on the role of politics here: The Church Should Be Active In Society, Culture, and Law; The Limits of Government and Christian Involvement; American Law and the Bible; The Church's Response to the Election - How Then Shall We Live.

Let’s resolve to rebuild the social fabric. Learn to ask people questions and listen to what they really value underneath their arguments. I’ve found that I agree with many of the values of people across the political aisle. I just disagree with their method and strategy of solving certain dilemmas. We can continue to seek a spirit of unity in our nation, find common ground, work together, compromise, build relationships with enemies, and ease the divisive rhetoric.

3. “A.I.”

There’s a lot to be said here. AI is out of the gate and accelerating. Businesses will continue to adopt it rapidly. The digital line between fiction, fantasy, and reality on user platforms will continue to blur. Therefore, people will increasingly not trust anything they hear or see. Deeply meaningful relationships will continue to be our greatest need and our greatest difficulty. We increasingly live in digital spaces and don’t trust people in a fragmenting society. Embracing a healthy balance of technology, boundaries, and living in the real world will be crucial to our health and sanity. 

On a side note, expect the advancement of AI to continue to accelerate the advancement of God’s kingdom around the world in surprising and creative ways. Keep investing your financial support into missionaries and mission agencies that are creatively reaching diverse people groups. 

4. Finances 

This is a friendly reminder that God is your caretaker, not the dollar. He has all that you need. Don’t let financial pressure or the national economy cause anxiety. The inflationary cycles since the 2008 economic collapse and the 2020 COVID shutdown continue to cause global issues. There’s even global talk about reengineering the current monetary systems. Coupled with that dilemma are the emerging crypto markets that governments are trying to figure out how to regulate and digital fiat currencies on the horizon. 

There is a lot of financial anxiety in the air. Inflation is squeezing the middle class and impoverishing the fragile. Your dollar isn’t buying as much as it used to, which means we continue to work harder for less or live with less. The opportunity will certainly present itself for you to be anxious or to trust in the Lord.

There are also opportunities to be found in hard times. God is a resourceful and superabundant Father. If we stay mentally rooted in his generous resourcefulness and not in our lack, we will function creatively and rationally when the waters are choppy. There are natural seasons of expansion and contraction. This seems to be a season of some contraction, but it is still a season of blessing.

5. Keep Your Eyes on Israel 

Something is changing in the Middle East. More Jews were massacred on Oct 7 than at any time since the Holocaust. Evil and the propaganda to serve evil’s agenda are growing bold and blatant. Islam’s agenda to dominate territory and people, mixed with Wokeism’s warped sense of social justice, is causing people to justify terrorism and align with values antithetical to our values as Western democracies. We can support both Israel’s war against terrorism and support the Palestinian people. The people in Gazan need to be liberated from the indoctrination and abuse of Islamic Jihadism.

God has a plan to bless Jews and Palestinians. God wants both to come alive in him and live in peace together in the land. But the current surging conflict is vastly more than a political issue. It is a deeply theological and spiritual war. And it has complex relational and social components. Scriptures seem to prophetically indicate that the nations will increasingly abandon Israel until God alone is left to defend her. (See Zechariah 12, Psalm 2, Isaiah 63). That wasn’t written to justify passivity on our part. It was written to encourage the Jews that God will not abandon her. We should be stepping into the gap and warring against evil, injustice, and oppression.  

Pray for Jewish people. They are under attack. Pray for the Palestinian people. They are being devoured and abused by evil. Pray for the good news and kingdom of Jesus to win people and change their minds and hearts into ambassadors of God’s love. To read more on the latest conflict in Israel, see Israel, Hamas, Jihad, and Justice.

6. Exposing Hidden Things 

The Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart” (4:5). The closer we get to the season of final harvest and judgment in the earth, the more God is exposing the hidden sins in our hearts and lives. 

Entire denominations are reeling from clergy scandals. People we’ve loved and trusted have been exposed to the light of legal justice. Institutional rot that has been festering for decades is being exposed as morally bankrupt. And secret lies and thoughts we’ve endorsed in the privacy of our hearts are being exposed and dealt with in this season. It is a season for repentance and humility. God is disciplining us in his mercy today so that he doesn’t have to judge us in his wrath tomorrow. 

We must embrace truth. Embrace it quickly and totally. Throw yourself upon his mercies. When Jesus returns, the scriptures say the nations will be terrified and will mourn (Matthew 24:30). Everything they’ve built on lies will collapse in an instant. But God’s children are living for him and building his kingdom only. We get to keep Jesus and nothing else. Everything else perishes in his purging fire. Embrace the purging.

Conclusion:

We live in interesting times. There is a lot that is shaking and sliding under our feet. It takes concentration to focus on Jesus and keep our heads about us. Don’t get discouraged. The Lord is near. God is faithfully building his kingdom of love in the earth. And you, my dear friend, get to partner with him in building his amazing kingdom.

Tags: finances, faith, culture, hope, israel, politics, integrity, palestinians, 2024, trust, abundance