Not long after networks began airing news on a 24 hour basis, a friend told me about her fearful neighbors. Two aging sisters in next door barricaded themselves in the house while the television blared news reports around the clock. The multiple locks on the doors stayed locked to anyone who didn’t call ahead to let them know they were coming. These two women fed on a steady diet of negative media determined to depict the world at its worst. They lost touch with real relationships with loving people. In trying to lock danger out, they only succeeded in shrinking their world to worst case scenarios.
I’ve always heard that each of us lives on the edge of insanity. If that's true, focusing on newscasts 24 hours a day would be just the catalyst to push me over the edge. We generally respond to what we can’t handle in one of several ways: we close our eyes and hope it passes; we cave and go crazy; we become calloused; or, we count our blessings as we learn to hide in the reality of God’s Presence. Not only is He our safe place and our security, He's the Joy that counteracts the fear and anxiety crouching in our hearts because of what may wait outside the door.
Sovereign Lord, You rule! When we forget this simple and amazing fact we find ourselves wadding up in fetal positions of fear and anxiety. But, when we remember and proclaim You as God of heaven and earth, we remember the myriad of times You’ve poured Your miraculous blessings on us and those around us. Recounting the ways You’ve loved us, we unwind and release ourselves into Your Loving Light. Dark doubts evaporate as we keep our hope anchored in You. You are Jehovah God, “our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
In the Name of Jesus, the Solid Rock, the One who never leaves our rocking boats!
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Selah Psalm 46:1-3
“Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim You, who walk in the light of Your presence, O LORD.” Psalm 89:15
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