Elections are next week and many people are nearly frightened out of their mind. Misinformation and twisted or omitted facts continue to incite fear about the future of our country. Dire predictions are being made to scare more folks into voting for a particular candidate. It strikes me that regular folks like you and me would prefer to vote based upon TRUTH instead of FEAR.
But when a culture is dominated by slippery, elusive “truth,” then people must be persuaded or coerced by FEAR because no universal truth exists as a basis for communication with logic and reason.
The powers that be must—control our airwaves, cancel our speech, indoctrinate our children, build more dependence on government, and distract our mind with entertainment—in order to control our behavior. Our enemies are doing a pretty good job of this—wouldn’t you say? But, my friend, if we are born again and know God, we have a choice. We do NOT have to live under the specter of fear! Did you know that you can dwell in the secret place of Almighty God? He provides a fortress for His people! God is a place of refuge for those who love Him. The Psalmist wrote:
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.’ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His TRUTH shall be your shield and buckler. You shall NOT be AFRAID of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. ‘Because he has set his LOVE upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.’”
Psalms 91:1-5, 9-11, 14-16
What an amazing list of promises from Almighty God!!! The question is “TO WHOM are God’s promises directed?” Ah, to those who LOVE Him; to those who have made HIM their dwelling place; to those who have put their greatest TRUST in HIM. After we accept His gift of salvation and understand that the real us—our SOUL—is eternally secure, we can live in the safety of God.
But to live in the security of God’s power, it is CRITICAL we understand our design.
God created us with a body, soul, and spirit. When our soul and spirit are born again, we must develop a deep understanding that it is this ETERNAL part of us that is secure against evil and the terrors of darkness. We need to develop a healthy spiritual perspective about trouble. We cannot live primarily focused on the preservation of our body and material things! Because then we will live in fear of losing what the Bible tells us we are going to lose anyway. When we die, we don’t take any of these things we worry about losing with us.
In fact, our body, which includes our brain, is not only vulnerable to evil, it’s often complicit. The Bible calls this our “flesh,” and, my dear friend, it is not any better than the day we are born again. The Bible says:
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:5-8
We know from our study of God, that He is a spirit, and thus, when the Psalmist speaks of “dwelling in the secret place of God,” this is relating to the spiritual part of us (soul and spirit). When we live in loving obedience to God, we are sheltered in His secret place of peace. Conversely, when we are living according to the desires of the flesh, we expose ourselves to the horrors of what the Bible calls “the works of the flesh,” such as “hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions…” (See excerpts from Galatians 5:19-21) There is no shelter there!
If you want to live in the EXPERIENCE of safety and security amidst the evil of a world ruled by your enemies, God must be who you LOVE more than you love anything or anyone else.
