"Are You SERIOUS?"

No one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

Matthew 24:36 

 

Not long ago, I heard an "Evangelistic Apostle" claim that we are in the end times and we should be in fear for our lives, but if you sent this person $100 cash, special prayers would be said on your behalf.  I remember thinking to myself, and I believe I asked God out loud, "Is this person serious?".  Are we truly in the end times?  Yes we are.  We've been entering the end times from the very moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

Should we be afraid? As a child of God...no.  Why would God fill His Scriptures with reminders for us to "Fear not, for I am with you"?  Why would God take the time and effort to send Jesus to pay our debt, if He meant for us to be so fearful?  Why would Jesus tell us that "I will be with you always, even to the end of the earth"?  Simple...God has prepared a place just of us.  And it's so much better than anything we could ever imagine.

Now, a word of caution...Never once has God ever advised us to not be careful.  Never once has He commanded us to act without thinking or to simply act foolishly.  NOT ONCE!!!  In fact, the Apostle Paul reminds us, in his second letter to Timothy Chapter 1 and verse 7, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

 

Why would God go to all this trouble and effort to remind us to use our mind, use His power and love, and reject fear if He was simply lying to us?  Has God EVER lied?  Not that I have found.  But each of us must make the conscious decision to trust Him or not.  I vote to trust Him!