Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear

Greetings in the Lord!

It's amazing to see how many riots and violent protests are happening all around the world right now.  In Venezuela, Ukraine, Thailand, even in France--over the potential building of an airport, of all things.  And as I was reading about these and other events, I also was curious to compare what various news outlets had to say about the happenings.  Most news sources give the same major details, but usually from slightly different viewpoints with varying degrees of elaboration.  However, there are a growing number of conspiracy theorists out there.  They never fail to offer really "interesting" twists and bits of information, but it always seems like I'm entering a fog when I hear what they have to say.  It makes me nervous (fearful) in my spirit, really, and so I naturally will back away and hear what the Lord has to say about them and all the major news events going on these days.  Hear the word of the Lord:

"Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.  The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread, and He will be a sanctuary;"  Isaiah 8:12-13

The Lord is pretty clear and to the point--don't elevate the ways and worries of this world above the Lord Almighty.  He is your Creator and well able to save; He is worthy of all your praise and love.  Jesus told us we would have tough times while we lived in this world, but we were not to fear those days, as He is the Light of the world, He has overcome the darkness.  Even when we are persecuted for doing good and for our faith in Jesus, we are to turn to Him to save and comfort us, trusting that no matter what happens to our lives, we will be one with our Savior for all eternity.  But there is more to glean from today's passage in Isaiah 8.

"...but for both houses of Israel He will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.  And for the people of Jerusalem He will be a trap and a snare.  Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured."  Isaiah 8:14-15.

So we can also understand that if we do not make God the Rock of our life, the rocks of this world will cause us to stumble and fall and we will be overwhelmed.  Then we are vulnerable indeed.  For if we do not turn to God Almighty with all our hearts and follow in His life-giving ways, in a crisis we may just turn to false "lights"--mediums, spiritualists, New Age, Wicca, false teachers, and false doctrines to ease our fears about the future.  Then we will really be in a desperate place.

"When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritualists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God?  Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?  To the law and to the testimony!  If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.  Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.  Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness."  Isaiah 8:19-22. 

So today, let's be encouraged to turn to and trust in our God in trials and crisis situations.  Let's not turn to those who offer false comfort, false wisdom, and false authority about the events of the world.  All things are under God's control!  He alone knows the end from the beginning, who holds our eternal fate in the palm of His loving hand.  When evil men violently pursue earthly treasures and walk in violence, we will be sober-minded and self-controlled so we can pray to our God.  "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8 

~Be blessed and be a blessing.

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