Church family,
Our enemy knows his time is drawing short. It’s always darkest right before the dawn. Things will go on from bad to worse until the parousia (that’s a word that means “revealing”). He knows he can’t separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. But he can try to immobilize us.
One tactic for our immobilization is fear. There’s a reason we use the phrase “scared stiff.” Right now we’re being tempted to be afraid. Afraid of people. Afraid of loss. Afraid of being blamed for getting someone sick or being on the wrong side of history. Afraid of the kind of society our children or grandchildren will grow up in. It’s all fear.
But God has not given us a spirit of fear. He’s given us a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. He desires this for us and He’s equipped us to experience these things. There’s one very simple thing we can do to take advantage of this. Here it is:
Start and end every day with God’s Word in your mind.
There is great need right now. And fear sells. So those who need something from us use fear to get it. Fear gets votes and donations. Fear gets social media shares. Fear gets viewers which turns into advertising dollars. But the Lord’s voice is one that brings peace. Read this:
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
Psalm 85:8a
Remember, it was Jesus’ words that calmed the storm. His words are available for you right now.
What if, instead of turning on the TV as soon as you wake up, you opened your Bible and read a Psalm? What if, instead of looking at your phone to check social media (which is almost useless), you dove into an ocean of peace through the Word of God? Start tomorrow morning. Your heart rate will go down. God’s voice is calling you.
Then what about at night before you go to bed? Look at what the Psalmist said gives him satisfaction:
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
Psalm 63:5-6
He is satisfied when he meditates on God in his bed at night.
I bought a year subscription to an app called “Dwell.” It’s a Scripture app and it’s amazing. Last night I set it to read various passages about peace for 8 minutes and then automatically shut off. I slept better than I did the past several nights. That’s not a coincidence.
What if, instead of going to sleep thinking about how many more people died from COVID or about conspiracy theories, we turned off the lights without a screen six inches from our faces, and went to sleep meditating about the goodness of God? What if you counted all the times God provided for you? What if you counted the number of Christian friends you have, or better yet, prayed for everyone you could think of?
As children of God, peace is ours for the taking. It’s totally free and there is no discrimination to keep anyone from experiencing it. The only question is, will we seek it?
Pastor Jacob’s Blog 