The world we live in is becoming a scarier place. Many of the recent news stories have hit too close to home for me: Shootings and violence in schools make me feel that it's no longer safe to be a teacher. A bombing in the state bordering mine, close to where I attended college, gives me a bigger jolt than bombings in other countries have.
Personally, I have been put in many stressful situations as well as witnessed the dramatic circumstances of those close to me. Being a compassionate and sensitive person, I identify with these people's problems, almost as though they were my own.
The anxiety, fear, and panic have been welling up inside of me, sometimes taking over my thoughts, emotions, and physical responses.
I realized that my focus was on the injustices, the dangers, and my own speculations. I was feeling sorry for myself to be living in such a world, and my prayers weren't much more than whining. I had taken on a defeatist mentality.
A friend helped me discover this a while ago, but I re-realized it today: The only reason God has made me so sensitive to the suffering in the world is so that I can bring hope. He has put nothing in my path that He has not equipped me to face.
Soon after this truth became clear to me, this song by Jeremy Camp taken from Psalm 23, 1 John 4, and Psalm 27 came on my playlist.
"...I will fear no evil, for my God is with me..."
God has not given me a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7).
The destiny of my enemies [I am not referring to people, but to troubles and the fear of troubles] is defeat.
My destiny is to be an overcomer.
Yes, bad things happen to good people. But as my fiance said to me, "let us not forget that we are made for eternity and our final destination (God's kingdom)."
"And even on the best days He says to
remember we're not home yet. So don't get too comfortable 'cause really
all we are is just pilgrims passing through" (Long Way Home by Steven Curtis Chapman).
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"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose... What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?...we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." -Romans 8:28,31,37
"Every spirit [including the spirit of fear] that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them." -1 John 4:3-5
