Replacing My Fear For Faith

            

        As I sit here, penning my thoughts, what is left of Hurricane Sally, is dumping rain on our area.  It’s not a big deal for us, just lots of steady rain.  While we don’t need it, (we are otherwise already saturated) we will likely experience some minor flooding; hardly worth getting upset over.

            There are those in the South who are reeling from all the devastation; and not only from Hurricane Sally but from Hurricane Laura, and Marco and others, starting even before hurricane season began.  When you add the hurricanes to all the horrific fires ravaging the West, it seems a little eerie!  Then, when you add the hate, and violence, protestors have inflicted on our cities, it’s a little like a mirror image of the weather!

            Who would have thought even ten years ago that our nation would be in such turmoil?  Or sure, there was dissension and even conflict, but the viciousness of people now multiplied by their hate, is downright scary!   

            I was reading about how Africa went through a military overthrow of the government four decades ago. The writer of this article and her family were terrified for their lives.  She remembered forty years earlier when she was a child how she and her family were spared death because of their faith in God and the prayers they raised up to Him.

            Yet, there are those Believers who minister in other countries and face death from a non-welcoming government daily.  Even citizens who live there are under this kind of threat, should they believe in Jesus Christ.

            I am convinced the turmoil we are facing today is directly related to the second coming of Christ.  As a human, it’s natural to have fear.  Just this morning there was a headline on the news which said, “War is coming!”  I can’t even imagine what format that would take, or even how you would know who your enemy is since it would be based (I believe) on your political views!

            During the Civil War, it was North against South and there were those who left their homes from one side or the other, given their conviction, and physically went to that geographic location!  How on earth would we find a dividing line now?  Again, I have no answers, but it’s certain fodder for fear and lots more questions!

            Despite what we are facing, there is another certainty.  Jesus will return and we, even as Believers will not be spared suffering.  It is the End Times.  We must face that, but I suggest not with fear, which is what the enemy would prefer, but with a level of joy they could not begin to understand.  It is here my faith must be greater than my fear!

            As Believers, we know when our time on this Earth –our temporary home—is done, we will come face to face with the Father.  I can’t wait to see Jesus!  Oh, my goodness, can you even imagine the joy?  Now that said, don’t think that I want war, violence or any other kind of ugliness to precipitate my going!  But knowing this absolutely can, if not totally take away the fear, it can lessen the fear.  One day I’m gonna see Jesus face to face, and that my friend, is reason for joy!

It's In A Safe Place

            

           I am notorious for putting something away in a safe place so I know just where to look for it when I need it!  At the time, it makes perfect sense, but when I’m searching for it, I’m totally at wits end trying to think of what I was ‘thinking’ when I put it away.  

            When I was a child, my parents would laugh when they lost something and then found it, saying, “There it is!  I always find it in the last place I look!”  I suspect my folks weren’t the only ones who made this observation.  But for a child, it seems a bit confusing.  After asking why they’d say that, with a slight giggle, answer, “Well, because once I find it, I don’t have to keep looking!”

            That made sense, and as an adult, those words enter my thought process as I’m searching for my lost item!  Yet all the while, I’m also thinking, “Where’s the last place I’d look?” Hoping that it would indeed be my last place---at the very beginning.  It’s a great approach for items like sunglasses, keys (always the keys!), an important piece of paper, a book, or anything that is a ‘concrete’ item. 

            But what about those intangible items?  Why is it so difficult to find love, faith, happiness, courage, hope, guidance, or even the path we should take?  These ‘abstract items’ can be lost when life throws us ‘under the bus.’  Circumstances such as divorce, the loss of a child, debilitating diseases like cancer, financial difficulties, natural disasters that takes everything they own, those struggling with depression and more can wrack a person’s self-confidence and self-worth to the point of wanting to give up!

Life seems to be spiraling out of control.  We feel totally lost and unable to find our way back to what is right and good.  Where do we look for these non-tangibles?  How can they be found, especially when we can’t even ‘see’ them with our eyes!?

            Often, we search, but just like looking ‘in all the wrong places’ for the tangible, concrete items, we do the same for the intangible ones.  People, frequently become so depressed and filled with despair, they just want to run away and forget.  That can lead to substance abuse, alcohol, or other behaviors that are at first glance the ‘perfect escape,’ but end up in only destruction and disillusionment.  

            God promised he would not give us more than we can bear.  Some would say, given the circumstance, it is more than they can bear and while dealing with other ‘escapes’ believe the best way out is suicide.

            We all have struggles, but we each must choose how we will handle them. Satan and his minions use our choices of free-will to pave the way for some of our difficulties.  Someone else added “the Laws of Physics” are also players in this journey.  Falls that break bones, or accidents that cripple our bodies also create circumstances which cause distress and despair! 

            God promised to be with us through whatever we face.  His grace is what gets us through.  We must claim that promise however, for it to be effective.  When we live in a way that demonstrates anger and hostility at God, forward progression can be difficult.  Negativity has a way of pulling us further under and Satan will jump on the opportunity to hold us down when we give in!

            When we look into God’s Word, we can find the perfect solution for all that is going on in our lives, (even in the current state of affairs of hate, and division).  God can make any bleak situation turn bright and good, when we allow His Spirit to change ours!

(The significance of the photo is, if you look closely, near the first sentence of the second paragraph, to the right of the picture, you'll see an apple a squirrel 'hid' for a later time!)

God-Winks

           

           I watched a movie last year and a second one this year that used the expression “God-winks.”  I had never heard such a phrase, but I have the concept!  A ‘God-Wink,’ in a nutshell means that God works out things, that couldn’t have otherwise happened.  I’ve always called them ‘God-Incidents” rather than a 'coincident'!

            There have been all kinds of horrific natural disasters.  One friend posted a picture of three crosses, where both of the ‘outside’ crosses were down, but not the center one.  Another picture shows a Bible that was untouched despite all the other devastation around it; sometimes it’s an entire church that is spared when the rest of the community is completely obliterated.

 

            In our lives, God can use uncommon occurrences or meetings with people that can only be a ‘God-wink.’  It might be taking a wrong turn and causing us to miss a horrific traffic accident, had we been able to take our regular route.  Occasionally it’s a card or letter in the mail that comes at a most crucial time.  Some people will even share money has arrived in their mail box from an anonymous person just on the day when everything would be lost if they didn’t have the exact amount of funds they found.  How does this happen?

 

            We serve a God who knows our every need--- in fact he knows everything there is to know about us.  The Bible even says he knows the number of hairs on our heads.  (This one makes me giggle since when I brush my hair in the morning, I lose so many, it must require a recount!---sorry, bunny trail!)  The point is, God isn’t a bystander in our lives. He is active in the lives of those who believe in him (and even those who do not.  Remember Pharoah?  God used him and he wasn’t a believer!)

 

            Our world is in a state of confusion and in some cases, even panic and fear over the pandemic, financial woes, rioting, political dissension—(even among friends), and the natural disasters that seem to be filling our days, and more.  It makes you ask yourself, ‘When does it stop?’

 

            I don’t believe it’s going to stop.  God told us in His Word that these things would happen as a prelude to his return.  There’s a song that has a line in it, that says something like, “It’s 11:59.”  The implication here is, God’s return is imminent.  I tend to agree.  God’s time is not our time and I won’t even consider projecting a literal time frame, but I do think the signs tell us that we are indeed reaching the last moments before his return.

 

            In the meantime, when we look, we can see God working all around us, even as it disgruntles Satan.  It makes him work harder to create more havoc in our world.  Satan knows how the story ends too, and knows his time is limited!

 

            How do you feel about that?  Can you see the signs?  Do you even believe there will be a rapture of God’s children?  Do you believe in Jesus’ return?  While to Believers that may seem an unusual question, I know a Pastor who did not believe this.  That too, is a sign of the end times.  It’s worth thinking about!