We are seeing and reading on a regular basis now about the human atrocities in places like Syria and Afghanistan. It wasn’t that long ago when the same horror was going on in Kosovo and Somalia. My sister-in-law tells me about the ethnic wars that she and her family experienced in Bangladesh, formerly called East Pakistan. These “incidents”, keep in mind, are only the ones that make the newspapers; most events like these don’t. Jesus foretold these days saying, “ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”1 The word “nation” in Greek is “ethnos”, from which we get our word “ethnic”.
What blows me away is that all the destruction and pain that the human race experiences is the result of believing a seed of doubt planted by the serpent. Now on a much smaller scale, scope-wise, this is not the honest, pure-in-heart kind of doubting or questioning, like Mary’s. No, death and destruction result from the doubts that stem from the carnal, unsanctified mind, as opposed to the mind set on the Spirit.
Saints, we are living in the last days. We have been for nearly 2,000 years! However, while prophecy is being fulfilled, life goes on. We need to “dig in” for the battle. We need to be “doubtless” concerning our Father’s care for us. We need to realize the transitory nature of our stay here on planet Earth. I look out; I look around; I get both angry at sin and homesick at the same time.
In a letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul’s statement that “we walk by faith, not by sight” is couched between two sentences which feature the word “confident”, the Greek definition of which means “to exercise courage, be bold, be of good cheer”. Like Paul, we are to become more confident in Jesus and less confident in ourselves. Jesus is in control. He is my rest. There is much more than my eyes can see.
