On Purpose

This morning I woke up with this song, from when I was a teenager, on my mind...

     "Love is in the air, everywhere I look.     
       around.
       Love is in the air every sight and every
       sound... "

I thought, "Yeah, right! Fear is in the air....everywhere I look around. Fear is in the air every sight and every sound!"

To my thoughts again came Psalm 56:3-4.

     What time I am afraid,
            I put my trust in You.
     In God, whose word I praise-
            In God I trust -
     I will not be afraid.
            What can man do to me?

I have been pondering these verses for days now and several things catch my attention....

David did feel fear..."what time I am afraid"....but how did he handle fear?

He said, "I put my trust in You!" Sounds like a proclamation! Fear! LISTEN UP! I am putting my trust in my God!!!!

"In God, whose word I praise."

My question is....whose word are we praising? It is obvious to me that, at least the majority of what I hear from most people I know, from the local news, from the media and everywhere I look around, every sight and every sound, that most are praising coronavirus, not God's Word. Whose word are we, as Christians, praising (boasting)?

1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Next in Psalm 56 I see "in God I trust", Again!

I ask.... In what or in Whom are we placing our trust, REALLY placing our trust? Our words and actions show what we are REALLY doing. Don't be a hearer only,  not a doer. Best to ponder James chapter 1 again.

Are we truly putting our trust in our Loving Father, our Magnificent, Merciful, Faithful, All Powerful, Almighty God? The one who is our Healer, Our Deliverer, Our Protector, our Provider, Our fortress to whom we can run to and be safe. Our God, whose word proclaims in Psalm 91 "For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence". Or do we have more confidence in the virus that the world is magnifying.

Now, please understand me...just as David had a valid reason to feel fear, so do we. However, it is how we deal with that fear that separates us, those who have the Most High God, from those who do not!

The final decision, as I see it, is that David chose to take His stand and announce, "I WILL NOT BE AFRAID". As if to say - Period and end of discussion!

It was as if he had evaluated the situation and made a deliberate, decisive choice based on the Word of God, the God He knew, to boast about His God. To put his confidence in His God, to cast away the focus on the trouble that were instigating the fear and declare: I willfully, of my free choice, decide that I WILL NOT Fear! My God is Greater, what can a virus do to me?

Read Psalm 91 and Joshus 1:5-9.

Make your deliberate decision today to do as David did in the face of a fearful situation. Boast in God's Word. PUT your trust in Him and Decide and Declare "I will not fear! You should see My God!!!! He will never fail me. He is my Hope, my Refuge, my Ready Help!" What can a virus do to me!