What a Time to Be Alive!
THE YEAR OF THE LORD’S FAVOR
What do you think of the times we’re living in? As we lookout on the landscape of a cultural moment where it feels harder than ever to be an ordinary Christian. Crushing inflation. Hurricanes sweeping the nation. Wars abroad. Another polarizing and divisive election season here at home. It’s not difficult to point out what’s broken all around us. Even more, it’s impossible to run away from or deny what’s broken within us. Are things going from bad to worse? Is the future not so bright? Contrary to how things might appear, Isaiah 61 comes to us to declare it’s actually a good time. Because in these moments where everything seems to be moving toward decline, the grace of God is never in decline. At bottom, the truest, realest, most fundamental thing about the year 2024 is that it is “the year of the Lord’s favor.” The time of God’s salvation spreading across the earth! Giving fresh starts to those captive to sin, growing his Kingdom through the mission of the Church, and cultivating his people into something beautiful.