Fearfully Made? Or Full of Fear?

I was having an online conversation with a friend who is not a believer.

"For a people who confess hope, Christians seem awfully scared of a lot of stuff."

Ouch.

And, tru 'dat.

I agree with her. This fear to which my friend referred is indeed present in Christian circles. We are bombarded with world, national, and local news, the internet, blogs, and talk radio. There are natural disasters, political scandals, murder, oppression, and a decline of morals. Funny. We certainly do seem preoccupied with the world. We, the very people who confess to believe in the One who REIGNS over ALL OF IT, are guilty of submerging ourselves in the muck when we continually choose to breathe in the dismal news around us. I'm certainly not a advocate for being uninformed, but when we lose the ability to weigh current events against the Truth of our Heavenly Father, our fears will only increase. 

Have you read Psalm 34? Here's a suggestion. Turn your eyes away from the TV. Give yourself a "nightly news fast" for the next 30 days. Stop engaging in doom and gloom conversations. For goodness sake, stop scaring yourself! Refocus your gaze on this Psalm and get a bit of perspective on Who ultimately comes to blows with the Evil that continually weaves its way throughout the world. As my wise neighbor put it, while shooting the breeze and theology in her kitchen one day, "We just love to fight the battles that God has already promised to win."

Yes, turn those baby blues away from evil, but don't let the evil you fear sideline you. For that's just what it wants you to do - to run and hide, and to check-out of being present and effective for God due to a paralyzing fear of the world. Live as if you truly believe that God has it covered.

Psalm 34:14 Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.

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