I Have Heard The Slander Of Many

Fear Not For I have heard the slander of many; fear is on every side; because of their plottings together against me, they planned to take away my life. 14 But I trusted in You, O LORD; I said, You are my God. 15 My times are in Your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. Ps 31:13-15 Pick any news channel. Turn it on. One is talking war, another economic disasters, national indebtedness, the President did... The list goes on. Radio talk shows speak about a conspiracy against the people of this nation. Prophecy interpreters tell this is the beginning of the anti-christ’s reign. One preacher researched the internet telling his congregation to prepare, “concentration camp type death chambers have already been built here in the USA”. Fear is fed to everyone as a daily fare. As a small girl, I remember being frightened in church. The hellfire and damnation preaching, “someone’s going to leave here tonight to go out into eternity unsaved,” was the theme of sermons. “The anti-christ’s coming. You’ll be left behind,” preachers screamed. My family talked about people going into a sinner’s hell. Unable to understand all of the things being said, I remained terrified. My grandmother lived in our home. If mother ever left home for any reason, Grandma was there. This one day Grandma was out of town, with my uncle’s family from next door. Dad was at work. Momma disappeared. I called for Mom repeatedly, without any answer from her. Sometimes Mom

went up the street to the preacher’s house. No one answered their phone either. You guessed it: I thought I’d been left behind, going to hell. I lay down on the sofa crying. One hour later, when Mom came inside from the hen house, I was blind. The blindness left in a few hours, but the fear lived on. When the preacher told about the concentration camp, fear wrapped its tentacles around my mind, choking the breath out of me. David said, Ps.56:3 “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Could God be trusted? Adult life has proved God much different than my childhood saw Him. His name is “faithful and true”, Rev.19:11, “his tender mercies are over all his works” Ps.145:9, “is longsuffering to us-ward,” 2Pe.3:9. Our times are truly in His hand. He’ll deliver me and you. Jesus with the uncertainty of today, we trust You to know and care for us.