Fear No Fear

“Jesus answered them, “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled. For all these things must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, epidemics, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:4-8, MEV). Jesus loves us enough to help us off the bandwagon. It’s easy to get caught up in the media message. The media no longer tries to report the facts. They report a story. Whatever narrative their owners want out there for whatever reason they want it. We’ll be nice and say it’s because of ratings and advertising money. Most owners of businesses are all about the money. But it means they are less trustworthy than they used to be – and they always played angles. Take some of the situations in the world today. At first, in one of the conflicts, everybody was on Side A. Horrible things were done. But now, time has passed. Everyone now is on Side B. Ignoring what happened originally, or downplaying it. Ignoring the message of Side A and their actual goal. Claiming that Side B are victims and should be given everything they want. Is there bad things happening? Of course. Is either side completely innocent? Probably not. That isn’t the point. The point is that the STORY is that Side A are monsters and need to be boycotted and stopped. No facts. No investigations into reality. No trusted sources. Just the STORY. It’s happening in many conflicts in the world today (military, corporate, national, and personal). Everyone wants to climb on the bandwagons – without fact checking – and join in the noise of participation. Jesus loves us more than that. Jesus doesn’t want us to join the crowd. God has always encouraged critical thinking, investigation, and finding out what’s really going on. With our relationship with Him, our relationships with each other, and with what’s happening in the world around us. He is about TRUTH. Not going along with the crowd for the sake of going along. Paying attention to what He says about what’s happening because He is the ONLY objective observer. Paying attention to what the Word says about what’s happening because it’s ALWAYS relevant. Making sure that we are on HIS path, with HIS words guiding us. Paying attention to Him and holding to TRUTH (THE truth, not yours or my truth – that is a lie of perspective). That is the way to remain un-deceived. That is the way to make sure we are aligning with godly things, godly thinking, and godly morals. That is the way to make sure we are getting closer and deeper in our relationship with Him, not heading off into the weeds of popular opinion. Only God has our best interests at heart (John 10:10). Only God has the TRUTH for us (John 17:17). He loves us too much not to tell it to us. We need to love Him enough to listen and submit to it.