by Jeremy A. Brown

We live in a world that refuses to acknowledge our dependence upon God. The world we live in outright rejects that idea and mocks anyone who says otherwise. Even Christians find it hard to resist this form of thinking since this society constantly pressures us to conform to its ways of thinking. In this life, we are either conforming to man's world or God's way! Which one are you conforming to?

We can take marriage, for example. According to Psychology Today, in 2017, more than 69 percent of couples cohabitated versus back in the 1970s when less than 1 percent of couples cohabitated. Some have assumed that cohabitating before marriage could make for a stronger marriage, but according to research done by the Journal of Marriage and Family in 2018, it was found that cohabitating before marriage had short-term benefits with long-term costs for marriage stability. Couples who cohabitated before marriage had a 40 percent higher divorce rate by the fifth year of marriage than couples who did not cohabitate before marriage. (See Proverbs 14:12.) Marriage is not the only institution our society has changed; society has changed the definition of what a family is. Society has changed the number of genders from two to 108 and replaced having children with having a dog or cat, and the list of changes is endless.

Choosing to conform to man's world over God's has plenty of consequences. According to NBC News, there has been a more than 50 percent increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), STDs hit another consecutive six-year high in 2021. As a society, we also face other physical ailments such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, to name a few, because we choose to ignore the laws of clean and unclean meats and the commandment, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." There have been numerous mass shootings at schools, mass shootings at grocery stores, and mass shootings at other public places that were once peaceful. Society is not just physically suffering, but we suffer mentally for choosing to conform to man's world over to God's laws. According to Time magazine and research done by CDC, suicides are at their highest rate since World War II, and mental health illnesses affect more than 20 percent of the U.S. population or about fifty million Americans.

In Jeremiah 29:11, God says He has plans for His people and that His plans will not cause them harm but will help them to prosper and give them hope for a better life in the future. On the other hand, man's way leads to anxiety, depression, sickness, and numerous other physical and spiritual ailments. In John 16:33, Jesus states it plainly to His disciples: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (NKJV). Just look around and tell me if you can find any peace in man's world?!

We must remember Philippians 4:6-7. Our God is a God of peace, and none of this confusion we see in this world comes from God; it comes from the evil one, Satan the Devil (2 Corinthians 11:14). Conform not to man's world because the joy is temporary. Conform to God's way, and you will reach a peace that man cannot provide no matter how much free money man throws your way. In the end, we will all be held accountable for the decisions we make (Revelation 20:13).