{"id":2946,"date":"2020-12-21T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=2946"},"modified":"2020-12-12T13:23:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T18:23:31","slug":"where-can-you-go-for-protection-in-this-crazy-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2020\/12\/21\/where-can-you-go-for-protection-in-this-crazy-world\/","title":{"rendered":"WHERE CAN YOU GO FOR PROTECTION IN THIS CRAZY WORLD?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">4 minute read<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>\u201cRescue me, Lord, from evildoers;\u00a0 protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day.\u201d (Psalm 140:1-2 NIV)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God consistently protects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People\u2019s lack of faith this year is disappointing.&nbsp; In a culture that receives most of its news from the internet and social media, truth has become subjective.&nbsp; For someone to understand the truth of God, they must first know Him. People aren\u2019t turning to God for protection because they don\u2019t know they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u2018Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.\u2019 (<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Jeremiah%2033%3A3&amp;version=NIV\"><em>Jeremiah 33:3 NIV<\/em><\/a><em>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Faith defeats fear.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Placing your life in God\u2019s hands is the best decision you will ever make.&nbsp; He is conqueror of enemies, victor of battles, lover of our heart.&nbsp; With Him, all things are possible.&nbsp; Without Him, I can\u2019t even bear the thought.&nbsp; People in our country are living in fear.&nbsp; Satan is stealing their joy without even trying.&nbsp; They are living without God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the joys of my life is my weekly tennis league. &nbsp; Last week when I played, I realized our court was the only one having fun.&nbsp; People were playing, but they weren\u2019t enjoying themselves.&nbsp; Disputes over line calls were tempering the mood.&nbsp; I realized, as my eyes scanned the courts, COVID has stolen their joy.&nbsp; Before COVID,&nbsp; laughter came from all the courts.&nbsp; Now, I saw tense faces and heard no chuckles.&nbsp; My heart ached for the pain I saw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our role, as Christ-followers, is to lead people to Him.&nbsp; None of us will ever save anyone.&nbsp; What other people do isn\u2019t our responsibility.&nbsp; But we are to set the right example; that\u2019s what Jesus did for us.&nbsp; We are to take no offense when wronged, but instead, return it with love. Instead of forcing our beliefs on others, with grace and mercy, we agree to disagree.&nbsp; And when we need protection, we trust that God has our backs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">COVID is a topic I don\u2019t like to discuss.&nbsp; However, I must discuss the virus because that is what people are talking about these days.&nbsp; My husband and I both had the illness.&nbsp; His case was mild; I was asymptomatic.&nbsp; We quarantined and followed guidelines.&nbsp; God protected us; we are grateful.&nbsp; The truth is viruses spread.&nbsp; God is the only one who truly protects.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Remind people about God.&nbsp; Our court laughed that day because God was in the center of our match.&nbsp; All four of us agreed, God was in control.&nbsp; When we discussed COVID, I reminded them of God\u2019s sovereignty.&nbsp; Once we started talking about God, the laughter flowed.&nbsp; We all knew Who\u2019s leading the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lean into God\u2019s protection.&nbsp; Show others, they can lean into God too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Question of the Day:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Who can you set an excellent example for today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Further Reading:<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Zechariah+1%3A21&amp;version=NIV\">Zechariah 1:1-21 NIV<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Revelation%2012%3A1-17&amp;version=NLT\">Revelation 12:1-17 NIV<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Psalm%20140&amp;version=NIV\">Psalm 140:1-13 NIV<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Proverbs%2030%3A17&amp;version=NIV\">Proverbs 30:17 NIV<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4 minute read \u201cRescue me, Lord, from evildoers;\u00a0 protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day.\u201d (Psalm 140:1-2 NIV) God consistently protects. People\u2019s lack of faith this year is disappointing.&nbsp; In a culture that receives most of its news from the internet and social media,&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2020\/12\/21\/where-can-you-go-for-protection-in-this-crazy-world\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">WHERE CAN YOU GO FOR PROTECTION IN THIS CRAZY WORLD?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2950,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions\/2950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}