This is a very fearful and uncertain time. People are terrified of what is in store for the future, particularly when it comes to leaders, climate, or war. I have heard doomsday predictions preached on a Sunday morning, I have read articles about how humans may be wiped out within the next hundred years, and I have heard that if so-and-so gets elected then our nation will become like Nazi Germany. We are in a constant state of fear.
The things listed above are rather frightening, but they won’t last. Think back to the dawn of time. Since the fall of man bad things have happened; scary things. People have always been frightened of something, whether it was being wiped out by a neighboring nation, or being stuck in the wilderness for forty years. People have endured though. The secret behind their endurance is of course the existence of a loving, just, merciful, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent (and more) God. Sure the world was wiped out in a flood at one point, but humanity was not stamped out. It was Noah’s faith that saved him and his family from total destruction. While a worldwide flood is unlikely today, we must have faith that God will get us through the tough times. And he will! He is failsafe! I know I remind readers of this in every one of my posts, but it doesn’t hurt being reminded; He defeated death once and for all! Not even death is of concern to Him. So it should be with us.
Nations will rise and fall, people will die, tragedies will occur, but one thing will never fail; God. Though things collapse around us, He won’t. What’s awesome is He’s reaching out to us, offering us that peace which surpasses all understanding, as well as eternal life. All we have to do is believe in Him, and what He did for us, and take His outstretched hand.
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are never destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.” -2nd Corinthians 4:8-12
As I said in a previous post, we are not supposed to live comfortably, in fact we are supposed to live quite the opposite. Perhaps it is our comfortable culture that has allowed fear to thrive because, quite simply, it threatens our comfort. The passage above makes it clear that we have no reason to fear, because God is with us.
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33
If that “I have overcome the world” part doesn’t bring you comfort, then I don’t know what will. Regardless of the situation, regardless of who is elected in November, regardless of the wars that may occur, we must not fear, for God is with us. He will last the ages, and so can we, as long as we never lose faith.
