Living for Jesus a life that is true,

striving to please Him in all that I do,

yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free

- this is the pathway of blessing for me.

Living for Jesus who died in my place,

bearing on Calv’ry my sin and disgrace -

such love constrains me to answer His call,

   All of us have, in our lives, an attitude of, "It will never happen to me." This attitude is a dangerous one. How can we say that poverty, pain, injury, or death will never happen to us? Can we control our future? Of course not. None of us can foretell what the future may hold, be it pleasant or not.

   How many people in the United States thought before September 11th that we as a country were immune to the violence of terrorism? I can say without a doubt that most Americans thought we were. "It will never happen to us," they cried, "We are America!" Before the 11th we all lived in a sort of bubble. As the planes penetrated the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon that bubble was popped and we realized that we were just as vulnerable as everyone else.

   I think some people have had the idea that "bad" things never happen to "good" countries, but can we really say that our country is "good?" Sadly, our country has gradually been splitting in another direction from our Godly foundations. "In God We Trust" is just another slogan, like McDonald’s "We love to see you smile." A truly Christian and God fearing country would never allow babies to be murdered by the thousands every day, nor promote or even recognize unbiblical life-styles as being an "alternative life-style." Granted, there are those in our country and throughout the world who do love and follow hard after God, they are His chosen people, a remnant.

   The Bible lays out for us a guideline on where our world will head, growing increasingly evil until a horrific climax at the end after which Jesus Christ returns in glory to take us into heaven and to throw the wicked into hell, for eternity. What we are seeing in our world today is only the beginning. We will see worse and it will be frightening, but we will have nothing to fear because if we put our complete trust in God, He will let nothing happen to us that won’t ultimately turn out for our good as the sons and daughters of the Living God. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:35-39. What we need to do is to drop the "It won’t happen to me." attitude in exchange for the attitude of Mary when she said, "Behold the [servant] of the Lord; be it unto me according to Your Word." - Luke 1:38. Or like Jesus Christ when He prayed, "...not My will, but Yours, be done." - Luke 22:42. Our prayer should be, as Jesus set the example, "Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." - Matthew 6:10.

   We need to turn over this area in our lives to God. We need to trust Him in a much deeper way. Can you trust Him to direct your life? Of course. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28. If God uses your life to glorify Himself and then allows you to be martyred for your faith, are you going to shake your fist at God and say, "This is not fair! This shouldn’t be happening to me!" No matter how great a witness for God you can be in life, there is no greater act than dying for your faith and glorifying God the whole time. Remember the verse, Romans 8:28, and imprint that deep in your mind. No matter how bad it will get, how hard it seems, how wrongly it seems to be going; remember that God has everything in control, He has everything perfectly planned out. All you have to do is turn your life over to Him, trust Him with your whole being, follow Him and obey His commandments. "What I do you know not now; but you shall know hereafter." - John 13:7.

   Let me share a really good observation on Romans 8:28 with you; it is from Streams In the Desert by L.B. Cowman: