When Headlines Make You Afraid--Don't Fear!

It seems like all the headlines, even in Christian organizations, are capitalizing on fear right now.

We are all tempted to go that direction--especially me.

If you want to meet someone who panics easily and thinks of the worst possible scenarios and imagines the most horrible things imaginable (and maybe worse) it is I. 

There can be the most beautiful moonlight shining through the clouds, but what do the headlines focus on?

The blackness, darkness, fear, clouds, and fear. 

And did I say FEAR?

Jesus told us everything He thought we needed to know about the last days, and then He said, 

"When you see all these things coming to pass, make sure your hearts are fearful and very afraid! Make sure you run around in a panic, scaring everybody around you, and then huddle in helpless fright in front of the newest terrible news on your screen so that you can make yourself and everybody around you even more afraid."

Right?

If Jesus had wanted us to focus on fear, He would have told us all the grisly details (and they can be grisly) of everything that would happen to everybody everywhere. And our hearts would fail us.

I can't imagine how we would be able to go about our work if Jesus had said all the awful things that we are reading right now in the news.

 Instead, He told us just enough to prepare us, and then He said, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." 

So because He has overcome the world, we can say amen after our many and oft prayers, and go on with our work. 

We can bake granola, put away laundry, plan menus, get ready for company, and make appointments at the vet.

"Fear and faith cannot exist within my heart at the same time," a courageous believer told VOM director during an interview, we read in family worship last night in the book When Faith Is Forbidden. "When we live by faith, trusting in the Lord moment by moment, fear has no room in the heart."

That sounded like Corrie ten Boom, but it was another saint, just like her, who refused to cave to fear.

When the headlines make you afraid, refuse to fear!