If 9/11 had happened fifty years ago, I wonder what the reaction of our country would be. Would we, eight years later, have given many of our civil rights up so that we can feel safe? Would Orwell’s vision of Big Brother be as active and present as it is in American today? Would there still be a huge hole sitting in Manhattan waiting for someone to figure out what to build on top of one of America’s darkest memories? I’d like to think not, because we used to be something much different.
The America of my youth had a swagger that came from being the nation that opened its arms to the world and people from all races and backgrounds. Was it a perfect country?, absolutely not, but it was a better country because we had a much more clear-eyed view of our fears. That America would have already rebuilt the Towers and probably made them taller because they understood that when you start to give in to fear you will spend the rest of your life being chased by it.
The Bible tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. What an amazing promise from God, yet what an inviting target for the enemy of our soul….your mind. It is for this reason that I believe we have never lived in a day where every avenue to our minds is screaming the message….be afraid, there is no hope.
Fear’s exact opposite is faith. Faith which is the key that unlocks everything from our salvation to the blessings of the Lord on our life must be destroyed at all costs. If we keep our faith in God intact, then the promise of love, power and a sound mind becomes a reachable goal that opens the pathway to abundant living that the Bible has offered as our promise.
We must guard our minds and hearts. A warning that Paul gave over and over to believers. Every newspaper should not be read as a Bible. Every pain shouldn’t require a trip to the doctor. Your 401k cannot be required daily reading. If we are to remain sane in an insane world, then putting our trust in God has to be more than words, it has to be our life.
The Bible warns that in the last days men’s hearts would fail them from fear. Heart disease has become the leading killer of our generation…coincidence, I don’t think so. The Devil has found our soft spot and is going at it with everything he has. My fellow travelers we must be strong. God won’t betray us if we stay focused. To feel fear is human, but to live in fear is to strip the power of our Salvation away and reduce the Cross to a blip in history.
Proverbs 24:10 (TMSG) 10If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.