Proverbs 3:25-26 Have no fear of sudden disaster
or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
for the Lord will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being snared.

Some people can’t enjoy current blessings for being anxious about what might happen. The tone of the Japanese translation here is slightly more direct: “Don’t be fearful about sudden terrors. Even when evil men come after you, don’t be fearful.” The whole point is that when the Lord is by our side, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. We have a lot of trouble getting that through our heads and hearts. We’re back to what Jesus said so clearly in John 16:33. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” The more we meditate on that, the more peace we should have. Expecting life to be a bed of roses is inviting psychological troubles of all sorts. However, focusing on the negatives takes all the joy out of everything. We aren’t to be surprised when everything comes at us at once, but we aren’t to be anticipating that to the point that we forget that God loves us and is blessing us. Orientals, or Japanese at any rate, tend to have a pessimistic outlook, probably because Buddhism teaches that life is suffering and the ultimate good is nothingness. (Really, the more I know about Buddhism, the more I wonder why anybody would follow it!) Jesus, however, said that “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) That is the God we serve, so we have nothing to be anxious about.

I tend to be optimistic, but I can’t say exactly why. There are indeed different personalities, but that’s certainly not the whole answer. A more important factor is that I have lived all my life in an environment of faith. My parents were totally committed to God, and He blessed them even in the middle of all sorts of trials, including my father being put in a Japanese internment camp at the beginning of WWII, and then after he was sent to the US on a prisoner exchange ship, being so suspected by the US government because of his love for the Japanese that he chose to live in an internment camp for ethnic Japanese in the US. He came out of that with no great love for bureaucracy, but an abiding trust in Jesus. The Lord took him home a few days after his 64th birthday, when he didn’t wake up after heart surgery, and I still maintain that was a special reward. My mother died of cancer at 72, but was a blessing to those caring for her in the process. With that heritage, I don’t make claims on tomorrow, but I expect God to be very good to me today. It is only when I take my eyes off of Him that I get down, because He is always faithful.

Father, I seek to teach others how loving and faithful You are, but so often they either refuse to listen or they think I’m bragging. I ask You to reveal Your love and grace to them, and use me however You choose in that process, so that as many as will may repent of their unbelief and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!