The Peace of God

Few behaviors sabotage our effectiveness more than worry.

But this pandemic is treatable. After all, worry is internal. No one forces you to do it, no one but you can fix it, and no one but you is fully aware of the extent of it. Our worry is precisely that: ours. 

But worry isn’t merely a psychological problem; it’s a theological problem. The origin of worry is Genesis 3, which takes us back to the primordial sin in the garden. Eve determined to be “like God” (verse 5). She and Adam decided to run the world on their own. Rather than living under God’s authority, they chose to take on his status and responsibilities. They asserted themselves as rulers of their own universe. Consequently, they learned the stress of trying to control time, destiny, and morality. 

No human being is capable of exercising such control. Yet all of us try. We play God and find ourselves overwhelmed by the pressure. 

Worry is toxic to our souls because it blinds us to what God has done and blocks us from what he could do—all because we focus on ourselves rather than God. Our craving for self-sufficiency disables trust. 

All this is neutralized by faith. Both the Old and the New Testaments have a simple solution: trust God. This is not blind trust as much as trusting God’s track record. He has proved himself faithful.

Paul wrote that we must “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). When Satan accosts us with negative thoughts, we wrestle those to the ground and expel them from our minds. 

The trick is that we can’t just rid ourselves of a thought. That leaves a vacuum in its place, and the negativity gets sucked right back in. We must replace negative thoughts with God’s truth. 

Scripture, sermons, and Christian music are powerful resources for mental transformation. The space and place you give to thoughts will grow roots in your brain. What we fertilize most will win the battle for our brains. When we feed our minds with Scripture, God’s Truth, and memories of his care for us, worry fades away and we can take every thought captive again.

When do you struggle with worry most often? What could you put into your mind to replace worry?

Church cancels 9/11 event under pressure from CAIR

Bloomfield Hills Baptist Church was to host a two-day event called “9/11 forgotten? Is Michigan surrendering to Islam?” on Wednesday and Thursday.
A former Muslim who has become a popular speaker, Shahram Hadian, was to speak Wednesday on “How the Interfaith Movement is Sabotaging America and the Church.” And on Thursday, Jim Simpson, a former Office of Management and Budget economist to three presidents and an investigative reporter, was to speak on “How Islam is Destroying America from Within.”
The event was planned by a group called the Detroit Coalition for Freedom.
In response to the cancelation, the organization United West will feature the two speakers in a webinar on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern time that can be viewed online through registration.

‘We don’t hate Muslims’
Last week, the Baptist church’s pastor, Donald McKay, defended the event in an interview with WJBK-TV.

“Islam is a growing threat in the United States of America,” he said. “We don’t hate Muslims, we hate the ideology they are identified with.
Hadian said on his website that his Sept. 11 discussion would “expose the growing deception of interfaith dialogue” and “explain how interfaith ‘dialogue’ is compromising the Gospel & our national security.”
But the Council on American-Islamic Relations along with members of Congress and state representatives pressed the church to cancel the event, and its elders complied.
The executive director of CAIR’s Michigan chapter, Dawud Walid, cast the event’s message as “anti-Muslim bigotry.”
“Though we believe that houses of worship have the right to preach their doctrine, we find it incredibly irresponsible for a church to invite someone who has the objective of spewing clear anti-Muslim bigotry,” Walid told the Detroit Free Press.

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