Dear Anna, many month ago I was asking God what is going on in the world, what is with all this stuff with masks and restrictions and the weirdness, what is the purpose and what is the motive and what are ‘they’ trying to do with us. I kept wondering and thinking and praying about it. But God clearly told me not to spend time thinking about it, not to give my energy to that, not to worry because I simply don’t need to know. God has got it in His hand and it’s in His control and I don’t need to know neither what is going on outwardly nor what is going on behind the scenes. God actually showed me that when I give energy and time and even admire the complexity of theories that go around and plans, when I’m wondering and guessing and watching – I’m basically worshipping the devil. Because worship or idolatry is giving time and energy and admiration and attention to someone or something that is not God (worship is not just singing songs in church, as we know by now). God is looking at drawing comfort and strength from videos on YouTube, drawing understanding and clarity from articles on the internet that explain what is going on and what we should do – as idolatry and adultery. As cheating on God, on Jesus, on Holy Spirit. God should be our source of hope and admiration and comfort and direction – not people; we should not put our trust into people and their directions and opinions. And being appalled, walking around pondering, and even simply being influenced by what is going on around us: the theories, the gender confusion, the abuse, the slave-like ‘freedom’, the perversion, the lies, etc – it’s giving energy to the kingdom of the darkness, it’s drawing food for thought from the pool of vile water, which reeks of hell and of slimy things. And somehow we want to take a sip again and again, knowing it’s taste and knowing its aftertaste, knowing that it’s poison to us, but we are unable to stop. That is what the dependency on the wrong source looks like. Repent and leave it. Repent and root it out of your life, work with God to do so. Repent and serve God. Repent and admire God. He is the Savior. He didn’t corrupt this world. He didn’t place people into decay to bring healing and be a hero, He didn’t corrupt the minds to bring freedom and become a hero, He didn’t mess up a family to fix it and become a hero. He didn’t. Parents that seek God in raising their children raise children that are not the same as parents who shove a phone into the kids hands so kid won’t bother them and so the parent can have some ‘me’-time. Godly leader of a country seeks God for every step of the way so there is no need to rescue those people from corruption, but rather they are a resource to a rescue. A man or a woman seeking God daily doesn’t need rescuing but rather is used by God to preach and spread the word of hope, such man or woman is used by God to rescue people from confused parents and confused leaders. So God doesn’t cause and then fix, God doesn’t ‘allow’ and then swoops in as a hero. God takes the broken minds, and broken families, and broken lives – broken due to people’s sin and people’s choices and people’s lack of reliance on God an abundance of reliance on the world – and fixes it all through us, alongside us, using our hands and our feet and our mouths. ’13. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” 14′ But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?’ Romans 10:13-14 (NLT)
We need to preach, with our lives and literally. We need to work in our sphere of influence and spread the Good News, spread that God holds it all in His hands, spread the message of repentance, spread the message of abandoning the wonderings about the devil’s work and beginning to wonder about God’s work, spread the message of rejecting the thinking of this world and renewing our mind daily with God’s Word in Gods presence. Daily. Then the worry will leave, then being appalled by what is going on will leave, then being paralyzed with inability to change anything will leave, the spirit of fear will leave – and the spirit of love, and power, and of a sound mind and self-discipline will come (2 Timothy 1:7). Amen.
I am noticing that more and more people in the community, at work, and at the hospitals are experiencing anxiety, poor coping, fear, grieving, hopelessness, distress, disturbed personal identity, post traumatic syndrome, powerlessness, low self-esteem, spiritual distress, and stress overload. People are isolated and lonely. Suicide rates are increasing. Yesterday a man killed himself outside a homeless shelter I worked in. I think that in a complex world, it’s important to have a stable, solid, and correct point of reference on which to base ones thinking. Thank you for the reminder that we need to simplify and just go back to God. The more I learn about mental health the more I see how a relationship with God is a protective factor for the mind. Thank you for your insightful post.