In just four words the newspaper headlines summed up the findings of the 9/11 commission report. So many experts, so many witnesses, so many months of study—and that was the final conclusion: WE ARE NOT SAFE!
Well! Didn’t we know that?
All over the world there have been disasters: the tsunami, the Pakistan-Kashmir earthquake, hurricanes and floods and blizzards and-you name it! And again, all over the world, from London to Bali there have been terrorist attacks. Disaster, whether natural or man-made, can strike anywhere, anytime, and without warning. No, we are certainly not safe-not now, not ever in the history of earth, nor in the immediate foreseeable future. The strongest armor, the most sensitive security system, can be breached by the next antibiotic-resistant epidemic.
What can one do?
King Solomon knew. Over 3000 years ago he wrote: “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord” (Prov. 21:3131The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord. (Proverbs 21:31)). In the twenty-first century substitute “armaments” and “vaccines” in place of the “horse,” and it will still be just as true as ever: “Safety is of the Lord”!
That does not always mean physical safety. Sometimes we escape danger and we look back and say, “Only God could have brought me through that!” Even unbelievers are often delivered in what seems a miraculous way, though they are likely to say, “Wasn’t that lucky!” Remember, God loved the world, not just “good people,” and He “is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:3535But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. (Luke 6:35)).
But He has a special care for those who are His own, those who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior and believe in and trust His wonderful work of redemption.
Those can confidently say, “I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
When He was here on earth Jesus spoke of those who believed in Him: “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.”
“Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen.” FEAR NOT!