fear – Akalesh

The earth is in a world-wide struggle. We struggle and war against principalities, powers and rulers of the air. Yes, there is a war in the heavens for who will ultimately win earth forever. Yes, we can help combat the war with prayer. Prayer for our leaders. Prayer for our nation. Prayer for our friends. Prayer for ourselves. When we pray, God hears, God responds. The below scripture is Psalm 141, the Good News Translation, not in its entirety. I stand in the gap and intercede for our leaders, our country, ourselves.

I call to you, Lord; help me now! Listen to me when I call to you. Receive my prayer as incense, my uplifted hands as an evening sacrifice.

Lord, place a guard at my mouth…keep me from wanting to do wrong…may I never take part in their evil.

But I keep trusting in you, my Sovereign Lord. I seek your protection; don’t let me die! Protect me from the traps they have set for me…May the wicked fall into their own traps while I go by unharmed.

Standing in the gap is no small thing. Israel is a mirror image of our own depraved, sinful nation. We have sinned against God and against heaven, but there are those of us, those who are called by God’s name that can stand and answer.

“The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.”

“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”

Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God. Ezekiel 22:29-31 NKJV

Who will stand in the gap? Will you? Will our neighbors? Will the Church? Will I stand or will I run in fear?

Edited by Spark34

Pictures from Pixabay

Written for the love of Christ.

In our little corner of the world, we don’t want anyone or anything to ‘rock the boat’. We want everything to be status quo except for a little jolt of happiness here and there to break up the monotony of normal life. We are mostly consumed with going to work, going to kids’ functions, and making ends meet. When something comes at us, being humans, most of us just freak out. Don’t Rock My Boat!!!!

This is what is happening to a lot of Americans today. The coronavirus pandemic has us running blindly like a herd of stampeding animals. Now, if you have never seen a live stampede, this is how it goes. One cow, usually the boss cow, sees a snake; or hears thunder; or sees her shadow and freaks out and starts running. Now, the others in the herd, not seeing or knowing anything except they see her running, play follow the leader. The herd is now running as hard as it can blindly following the one in front.

Herds can run through six-strand barbed wire fences like they were made of string, jump across streams in one bound, run head-long into ditches deep enough to hide a dinosaur, and keep running for miles. When they finally stop they are exhausted, cannot find home, and really don’t know what was so frightening.

Unfortunately many Americans are in a herd, stampeding to the stores and stocking up. Now for me, the strangest thing that I have ever heard of that people are in a frantic panic to get is–Toilet Paper. I am not sure who started the stampede of this item, but I find it, well, funny! I understand that not much is coming from China, but we have our own toilet paper manufacturing plants here in America. So, I don’t think toilet paper will disappear except into the deep reaches of some basements that in years to come will become beds for mice and bugs.

New diseases, new protocols, the loss of feeling like we are in control; these are all things that make us humans panic. Right now we need to remember what country we live in, remember our heritage and stop the panicked stampede. America has survived for centuries, and a virus does not turn America into a panic nation. We stood strong, united after 9/11. In Oklahoma we stood strong after April 19th. When Americans, those from the cities and those from the farms, have been attacked, what has made us great is uniting as one to fight the threat, not stampede from it.

Do not fear the unknown. We are not alone in this fight. Jesus is here in the middle of it with us. Face this pandemic and say, “We will not falter. We will not be over taken. We will not destroy ourselves. We are strong. We are America.” Stop. Look around at the people helping–the nurses, the doctors, the laboratory technicians, and the normal people doing normal things. See with your own eyes the unknown, but then decide you will not follow the herd blindly. America was forged by the sacrifice of brave Americans. Americans don’t run from the fight, they run toward the fight and win!

In God We Trust

For Christ’s Love I Write

All photos from Pixabay

Edited by Spark 34 – Editorial Services

Tag: fear

Stand in the Gap and Pray

Don’t Rock the Boat

In God We Trust