Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ~Philippians 4:8 NIV
I don’t know about you, but with the weather issues, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and the possibility of a nuclear meltdown in Japan, I needed to change my thinking to other things for awhile.
It doesn’t take much these days to get easily caught up in the fear factor. Fear is the devil’s plaything. He likes to swing it around and create situations within our minds to make us afraid. I suggest we not go there. Life is difficult enough without us compounding it and feeding our fears. Instead let’s focus on what is lovely and pray in ernest for those in need. We have no control over nature and the havoc she wreaks throughout the world.
Instead of living in fear, let’s choose to live in faith.It’s not always easy to do, but it’s not always that hard to do either if we make a conscious effort to try.
Your post is a breath of hope amid so much despair, but I still can’t “put on a happy face” these days. I see the devastation and, while I don’t live in fear, I find it hard not to feel overwhelmed by sadness at all the misery that I can’t do anything about. I *do* feel thankfulness for the blessings of home, food, health, family friends, faith, etc., and the safety of extended family who live in Japan, but I can’t put the pain of others completely out of my mind. I pray, make pitifully small donations in relationship to the great need, then pray some more that God will comfort and sustain the afflicted. Still, it doesn’t seem like enough.
Hi Carol,
I don’t think it will ever FEEL like we can do enough. But that’s where we have to count on God to multiply what we can do even if what we donate is a mere pittance related to the perceived need.
I understand what you mean though and that’s one of the reasons I wrote this post. And you have extended family in Japan which makes it more difficult to cope, but thank God they are well. And we can’t and shouldn’t put the pain of others out of our minds, but we have to pray that God will help in situations where we, on our own, can’t do a lot. But I do believe our country and others will rise to the occasion and do what must be done to ease the despair. Hope that makes sense.
It does, and thanks for the encouragement. I know that despite human despair, God is still in control. 🙂