Lift Up Your Eyes and See
Pastoral | May 07, 2026 | By: Justin Rodriguez
“It is not a gain, but a grievous loss, that so often today, Christians are people whose hope is no more than the mild optimism of the worldly.” – Leon Morris
A quiet, fragile hope has settled over much of our Christian community. As we face the visible brokenness of the world around us, we live as though the best we can expect right now is a slight cultural improvement rather than genuine spiritual awakening inside and outside the Church. If hope truly remains, it is often tethered to the idea that society might lean marginally toward Christian values, not that God might powerfully awaken cities to His glory.
But what kind of hope is this? What expectation do we truly carry that God can and will bring hundreds and thousands to their knees before Him?
Do our prayers reflect those of Paul when he writes: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20–21)
And nowhere is hope diminishing more than in how believers speak of our younger generations.
It is not uncommon to hear a quiet pessimism when older Christians speak about these rising generations. We are told they are biblically illiterate, unfamiliar with the grand story of Scripture that once seemed assumed knowledge. We hear that they are deconstructing everything, suspicious of authority, and increasingly progressive on matters previous generations considered settled.
Many point to their constant digital immersion and wonder if a generation formed by endless scrolling can ever move their eyes away from screens and onto Jesus. Others note the rising anxiety, depression, and emotional fragility and quietly conclude that this is soil too hard, too rocky, and too thorny for seeds to take root.
Many wonder if a generation formed by endless scrolling can ever move their eyes away from screens and onto Jesus.
But beneath many of these observations lies something more revealing about us than about them. We have begun to hope for marginal moral improvement rather than widespread repentance. Our expectations have quietly lowered. Our prayers have subtly shrunk. Our faith becomes cautious. Our hope becomes, at best, a mild optimism.
The question before us is not whether the cultural moment is complex. The question is whether we still believe in the God to whom Paul prayed: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”
Faith, Hope, and Love
To those who feel hope fading, Paul reminds us of what remains: “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
These three remain.
Faith grounds us in who God is and what He has promised. It anchors the believer in the character and reliability of God.
Hope is the expectation of the good that God has said He will accomplish. The Greek word ἐλπίς (elpis) carries the sense of confident expectation. What we believe about the future will inevitably shape how we live in the present. If your expectation is pessimistic, then it breeds hopelessness. If it is grand, then it becomes the primary motivating driver for your life. Hope is the great motivator.
Love is the great outward action of the Christian life. It has been given concrete expression in Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of the world. (Romans 5:6-8; 8:30-32; Ephesians 5:1-2) As Gordon Fee rightly observed, “Anything short of action is not love at all.”
To summarize:
· Faith grounds us
Hope motivates us
Love moves us toward others
We may still have faith, and we still speak of love. But there is a danger. If our hope quietly erodes, our faith loses direction and our love loses urgency.
What God Is Already Doing
There are reasons why the church needs to awaken from its quiet pessimism.
Researchers are beginning to describe what some are calling a generational reversal. For the first time in decades, younger generations are showing fresh openness to Jesus. Millennials and Gen Z, in certain studies, are outpacing older generations in expressed commitment to Christ. Even more surprising, this movement is being significantly driven by young men, reversing a long-standing pattern.
For the first time in decades, younger generations are showing fresh openness to Jesus.
As researcher David Kinnaman notes, “At this time, we are seeing interest in Jesus that is growing among those who do not otherwise describe themselves as Christians, indicating that many of the new followers of Jesus are not just ‘recycled’ believers. Along with younger generations coming to Jesus, this is another strong sign that interest in Jesus is brewing in new population segments of society.”
In other words, God is already stirring.
This is not a moment for skepticism. It is a moment for discernment and stewardship.
My prayer is that this news would increase our faith in who God is, expand our hope in what God is able to do, and ignite our love for the world He loves.
Because renewed hope must always lead to renewed love.
Lift Up Your Eyes and See
In John 4, a Samaritan woman encounters Jesus at a well and leaves transformed. Her testimony is so compelling that the townspeople begin streaming out to see Him.
The text tells us, “They went out of the town and were coming to Him.”
“Meanwhile,” and here the timing matters, while the townspeople are coming to Jesus, He turns to His disciples.
The disciples are thinking about lunch.
Jesus is thinking about what’s about to happen. He tells them: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
He immediately goes on to explain that the harvest is not ready for months, but “Look, I tell you, lift your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” Now something I wondered is: why did Jesus say white instead of ripe?
Many scholars suggest Jesus was not pointing to crops at all but to the crowd of Samaritans approaching in their white garments. The harvest was not months away.
It was walking toward them.
And then Jesus gives the invitation that still stands today: to reap where we did not labor and to participate in the work of God already in motion.
And just after, we hear the townspeople proclaim that Jesus “is indeed the Savior of the world.”
The Question Before Us
Greater than any challenge we face in reaching the next generation is the news that this generation is desperate for Jesus and starting to realize it.
The issue is whether the Church will look up and see. Pastor Rustin has said more than once that “Scottsdale Bible Church is a sleeping giant waiting to be unleashed,” and I believe that fully!
Will we fall into mild optimism, or will we pray like Paul in Ephesians 3?
And here is the question each of us must prayerfully consider: How is God calling you to take part in this harvest?
The fields are not barren. The fields are white.
And the moment to pour into the coming generation is now.
Justin Rodriguez
Central College Pastor
Don’t miss what God is doing right now.
If He is stirring something in you, take a step today.
Join the work already happening in our Students, College, and Young Adults ministries and be part of how the next generation steps out in faith.
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