In 1947, Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall famously prayed: “Give to us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for—because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.”
As discussed in Part 1…we need to remember there are three aspects to Marshall’s prayer. Asking God to show us WHERE to stand, WHAT to stand for, and for the ABILITY to stand for good and right. In this three part SKOPOS, we’ll explore the where, the what, and the ability it takes to tackle the issues that we face today.
The second part of this series is about the WHAT. Exactly what issues are we, as Christians, supposed to pour our hearts and time into? In our ever-communicative world, there is no shortage of issues for people to be passionate about. However, we are called to a different passion, a different first love as Christ followers. See, I think we can do a lot of damage by standing firm on issues that might be good things, but might not be the right things. And, inversely, we can do a lot of good and make a big difference when we stand for right things. The question is then, how do we know what is a right issue or topic for us to advocate? Let me give you three criteria that I have recently adopted as my test:
- Is the issue supported by God’s Word? Can you make sense of your stance and the result of your goals in light of God’s Word and what He says about the topic?
- Is your issue beneficial? Does what you’re about to stand for do good things for people, help those in need, or help bring about better things? It can be political, social, spiritual, etc. But, does it bring about good?
- Does it help or hurt your reputation as a Christ Follower? Are you contradicting yourself or known Christian principles and causing confusion? Are you making the Church look bad?
These are just a few principles that I’ve learned through mistakes of my own. It’s important that we always check God’s word and ask the Holy Spirit for discernment as we decide WHAT we stand for or against.
Keep listening for SKOPOS as we’ll soon be how to gain confidence and strength to stand for the right things.
