Worry

Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you.

Psalm 91:6-7

IF YOU ARE a parent or a grandparent, do you ever worry that one of your little ones might be abducted? Have you ever entered a restaurant as the news was broadcast of a slaughter at another nearby eating place? Ever think twice about taking a road trip, for fear that a sleepy trucker will cross the center line and smash your car and you and your family?

Such things do happen sometimes. But the probability of such accidents happening to us is slim, and most of us are never touched personally by violent crime. Why is that? One reason is that we belong to God, and he promises to care for us in this often harsh world. None of us has any reason to quake in fear or to worry continuously or to obsess about hypothetical scenarios that could leave us maimed or dead.

Psalm 91 is a fantastic picture of God’s continuing watch over his loved ones. We needn’t live in fear. We should never sit at home terrified to go out because we might find the “bullet with our name on it.” God wants us to live in the knowledge that he watches over us, he protects his own, and he cares for each of us.

Even when bad things do happen to God’s people, his promise is that he’ll be there with us. He’s always watching and sheltering us in his arms of love and grace.