If you are paying attention to life, you have at least a faint sense that the things of your life are noticeably moving in a bad direction.

In case you honestly haven’t recognized these things, let me mention some examples that I am aware of:

• Food prices are higher by 25-50% while incomes have not increased
• For most, housing, some utility costs and insurances have climbed
• Many places of business have closed their doors; others have raised prices
• Major banks and financial institutions are on the precipice of failure
• There are more homeless people walking the streets than ever before
• Unexpected weather has become itself a mass murderer
• Coming into the open are the rising disagreements between factions
• Violent and deadly gangs are taking control of some US cities
• Leftist groups are growing stronger in the U.S. planning an uprising no later than 1/20/25
• Trade between countries is pulling back and currencies stressed
• Countries have been practicing for and are now staging for war
• The Middle-East, Asian areas, and Europe are war tinderboxes
• Just this week the world’s headlines openly warned of nuclear war

For the near-perfect majority of peoples planet-wide, there is nothing that can be done to affect the crescendo of all these negative trends; not now! The same is true for us here in the United States, except for the roughly 3% of the US population of those that say they are a Christian, that are true Christians; we can do something.

A true Christian is one who is not afraid to confess that he or she is, who reads God’s Word pretty-much daily, talks to the Lord often throughout the day, and walks in the righteous ways of God and what is commanded in the Bible—day-by-day. Most all others are a Christian in name only and do not do these things!

Genuine followers and disciples of Jesus Christ understand what’s happening, know what the Bible says is ahead, and believes in their hearts that they belong to God and that He has made promises and readied provisions for what will be needed that will be secured by faith and trust in Him.

Therefore, having sincere faith in Jesus, the very first thing we must do to manage our responses to what we see and hear about that are concerns and developing dangers to us and our families—is to remain calm.

The true Christian has things such as these assurances in God’s Word to take courage by when bad news comes or things that would shake us in our minds and emotions loom-up ahead:

† Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

† Psalm 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

† Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ... 3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

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I Have Confessed This To You Many Times Before

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I have confessed this to you many times before that when something bad happens that will significantly affect me, or my wife and me, it has not been unusual for me that for the first 60 to 120 seconds (maybe even for up to 5 minutes) there rises up a serious fear or great worry. Of myself, I suspect such things happening in my heart (and of other true followers of Jesus) are the weak shouts of my dying worldly man—that part that simply cannot trust God and easily freaks-out in a crisis.

But once that instant wave of fear and worry are cleared away by my faith and trust in God, spiritual sensibilities take over and I quickly regain my composure in the face of any trouble.

My point is that although we can immediately become seriously afraid by threats or some trouble, by the Holy Spirit within and God’s Word reminding us of His assurances, and choosing to rise up and stand firmly on our proven faith, our calmness and peace resume as the state of our mind and heart. But it is a choice to regain it and to remain calm and at peace before our mighty God.

This next passage can serve as a metaphor for our lives as followers of Jesus still here on the earth:

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† 2 Corinthians 4:8 [Paul said this:] We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying [death of our old fearful sin nature] of the Lord Jesus, that the life [His life and all provisions] also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body [our ‘now’ life in Christ].

( Remain Calm In The Lord )

If a man and woman can and will, they should train themselves in advance of the times ahead by these five simple words: “Remain calm in the Lord.” If, when you usually suddenly and often without warning face a bad situation, if you are a child of God, and if you are willing to trust in His care, when the shock of this or that trouble leaps up before you ready to knock you down for good, rather than give all your mind and emotions over to fear, instead say first to yourself, “Remain calm before the Lord”, and then turn and face God, ask for His grace, and worship Him.

Examples of fear-mongering [promoting] trouble: A huge financial bill arrives, the car breaks down, you or a family member needs urgent hospital care, you lose your job. . .remain calm and turn to the Lord! Or more to the point in view of actual impending issues threatening us today: The world goes to war with itself from one end of the northern hemisphere to the other. Nation-states begin using their worst chemical, biological and nuclear weapons against each other—there is no more restraint and our own country is chief among targets.

Once it begins here it will strip our land of most of all we have known and been blessed with heretofore. Multitudes will die and the survivors will have little or no food, clean water, and few safe places to live to cope with what has happened. There will be no formal medical care or medicines, no ambulance, police, or fire personnel to call for help, but there will be gangs and foreign invaders ransacking what has escaped destruction. All hope is lost for most that have lived through the war no one believed would come here—yet strong hope can and should survive in the minds and hearts of the true followers of the Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ.

In Him, in spite of all that had happened, no matter how today and tomorrow looks like it will be, His own can-and-must remain calm before the God of our salvation.

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In 0ur Tomorrows There Will Be These 5 Kinds of Christians

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1. Brand new believers that need strong encouragement and leadership.
2. Those that have been so in name only; no faith in God, no relationship with Jesus, maybe grew up in a Christian home and or attended a Christian church but never gave their lives over to Jesus. These men and women will either have “a come to Jesus moment” and get born again or they will perish as lost souls.
3. Then there are those that had knelt at an altar before God and been forgiven, washed clean of their sins and born again from Heaven but that’s as far as they took it. They did not read their bibles and do not know what it says to them, they rarely talk to God (usually only when they are in trouble), and may not even spend time with other believers and participate in the practices of our faith. These men and women will either fall away and be forever lost or they will get serious before God and do what can be done to grow in faith and trust in God for whatever time is left of their life. If they have somehow maintained a saving faith in Jesus, many of these will have already died in the holocaust of sickness, disease and war that came to our cities and home towns.
4. There are those that were born-again by their faith in God but by the many influences of this sinful world have grown doubtful of God, lukewarm toward Him, or have backslidden outright from the faith needed to be saved and will be counted among the lost at their deaths, if there is no sincere repentance and change before that event.
5. Finally, there are those devoted and true born again ones that are living in a relationship with God each day and growing in their faith and trust in Him. These are those that will be able to continue in their faith when serious trouble arises. It is these ones that will be able to remain calm in the face of anything that confronts their lives. It is these Christians that will be able to defeat the 5 minutes of sudden fear and look to the Lord for help and deliverance from anything that comes to ruin their faith in God.

It is these ones that know that “nothing is impossible for God” and that “God is able to make all grace abound”. They know that “for those that love Him and are the called of God that all things work together for good.” These true followers of Jesus are familiar with the power of God revealed in His Word and also know of His promises, which can be called on and counted on. But to walk in this reality and its provisions and protections we cannot freak-out and suffer a faith meltdown when not only the whole world does but our personal world crashes and is burning down.

The faithful must-remain-calm by our faith in God, which is not by the willpower of our minds or emotions but by the strength of our regenerated and trained human spirit where the Holy Spirit dwells.

This week’s exhortation is that in spite of great hardships and trouble, we must be prepared to remain calm in the months and few years ahead and our God will see to the rest—that’s His promise and His power!

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† Mark 4:35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, [He gave this command to be accomplished by faith:] Let us pass over unto the other side. 36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. 37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. 38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? 39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm (tranquility). 40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

† Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation (Gr: lifestyle, behavior) be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

† Psalm 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest [be calm before Him] in hope.