Keeping Safe in a Dangerous World – Remembering September 11
I remember September 11 very well, Although I do not live in the USA, like everyone, we all remember where we were when we heard the news, and pretty much what we were doing at the time.
I remember coming home that day. Mum had been watching TV. She said she had seen this plane flying into a building.
She had thought she had been watching a film, she said, at the time. She had muttered even then, that who thinks of such a thing for a film (movie)! And to show such a film during the day when kids were coming back from school, was unimaginable!
Sadly as we all discovered, it had not been a film (movie). It had been real, as real as real can be.
No one who understood the scale of what happened would ever be the same again. The pictures were too vivid. The horror too raw.
As a result of September 11, Bible sales rocketed. To think that humanity was desperately this wicked (which ironically the Good Book asserts too in Jeremiah 17:9), was unfathomable for our finite minds to grasp.
But desperately wicked were these men who carried out merciless acts of terrorism.
Only desperation could drive a person to end their own life in such a horrible manner and also discount the innocent lives of those who would die too.
No amount of human intelligence had foreseen this. September 11 showed our mortality as human beings.
As a result, people become very protective, more fearful as the reality of the times we are living became more clear. And for some, it marked a time to turn to an immortal God.
So just how do we go from one day to the other without our heart stuck in our throat with dread? How can we board planes and not be worried?
Few years ago when there was a power cut in the USA, many were very worried, thinking it to be a terrorist act when it was not.
Had that been in the 1980s, that kind of fear would not have existed. It shows how raw and easily accessible the fear of terrorism really is in many hearts.
The Bible does however predict there will come a time when many will faint from terror (see Luke 21:26).
But the Bible also tells us not to be fearful. Because this kind of fear and terror causes many to become anxious, paranoid and ill!
Can we rest in this knowledge that irrespective of the dangers around us, we can feel safe?
Well, I surely do think so. It is said that absence of danger does not mean safety. So I have no choice but to take God at His Word.
If He says do not fear, I make a choice not to be fearful. And I want to encourage you with that assurance too.
I remember the night before the 7/7 attacks in the UK, that was when the UK saw one of the worst acts of terrorism in the mainland.
The night before, I was praying and found myself muttering the line out of Psalm 91 A thousand shall fall by your side, 10,000 by your right hand but it shall not come near you.
I remember that night, I kept repeating it shall not come near me. I could not understand what had possessed me at the time to do this, could not fathom what it was either and felt embarrassed even by the content of my prayer.
However, I felt this strong compulsion to keep repeating these words for reasons unbeknown to me.
Ironically the next day, I woke up earlier than normal. My journey meant I was heading right in the direction and vicinity where not only the train bombs were to take off later that morning, but was also just a few feet away from where the bus exploded!
Had I left at my usual time, only in eternity will I know how close I came to possible death or injury. I firmly believe that God saved me that day because I had dared to pray the night before.
The next day I had to return to complete my course a few metres from where the bus had exploded. It was a day I would have been forgiven if I had not turned up as many were fearful. The trains and streets were empty. Many decided to stay back home.
But I had this assurance in my heart that the same protection that had shielded me from danger would do the same. It was not about making positive declarations, but it was about having an inner witness in my heart.
In today’s troubled world where wickedness seems to be manufactured in factories, as Christians, we cannot afford to be fainthearted.
As any earthly father would protect his child, we must trust in God’s protection. Psalm 91 starts with He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High…. I always say I am in that secret place, protected and shielded where the devil, terrorism, danger, and so on cannot find me. Yes, there is a secret place.
You may find this post by Kenneth Copeland very useful. I encourage you to read this today.
http://kennethcopelandministries.org/2015/08/5-ways-god-keeps-you-safe-in-a-dangerous-world/#.Ve_-cMtwbqA
And for those who lost their lives in the September 11 atrocious attack, may their souls rest in peace.
May their family and those who were left behind be comforted. May those who reached out to those injured, those who risked their lives, those who have provided comfort, help, advocacy, and so on, may they and their generations be blessed and protected forever. This is my prayer today. In Jesus Name!
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