Haven

 Whether it’s fear of losing it or fear of not having enough of it, there’s always something to keep most people awake at night. There’s always something just sitting there, waiting in the wings to disturb your peace, to rob you of your joy, and to consume you with worry and fear.

The enemy doesn’t like it when you have peace and joy and are satisfied in Christ because it means he has fewer weapons in his arsenal that will work against you. If you are complete, if you are satisfied, if you have need of nothing even though in the world’s eyes you have nothing, there isn’t much the enemy can do to make you anxious or fearful.

Your safe heaven isn’t wealth or poverty. Your safe heaven isn’t the spider hole you dug in your backyard that one time your neighbor let you borrow his bobcat, nor is it the bucket of potatoes au gratin you bought off Jim Baker ten years ago. Your safe haven is found in the promises God made to His children that He will neither leave them nor forsake them, that He would be with them wherever they went, and present whenever they called.

Every time the world gets a bee in its bonnet and war seems imminent, the old band gets back together, and they start playing the same old classics. Buy gold here, buy gruel here, get your atomic blankets and radiation-repelling underoos while supplies last. If they were just late-night infomercials, I wouldn’t have an issue, but these are supposed spiritual authorities who are trying to sell you everything and the kitchen sink while omitting the most crucial thing of all. I may have missed it while trying to open a bucket of stewed peas with a screwdriver, but I never once heard a call to repentance in between all the limited-time offers of buying one and getting one half off.

Are you saying we shouldn’t prepare? I’m saying you shouldn’t let fear motivate you, and you shouldn’t let people who would use, fuel, and intensify your fear to profit do so.

It’s gotten tiresome seeing the golden oldies playing the golden oldies on repeat and everyone getting excited about it all over again. If what you are consuming spiritually is making you anxious, if it’s giving you sleepless nights, and you’re jumping out of your skin at the sound of your own breathing, then it’s not of God. There, I said it, and I’m not going to retract it.

God tells His children what the future holds, not to scare them near death, but to reaffirm that if He knows what the future holds, then He knows His children’s needs in the midst of that future.

Matthew 6:31-34, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

God knows that you need all these things, and unlike the guy trying to sell you ten dollars’ worth of creamed corn for sixty bucks, God will still feed you if your card declines. In point of fact, He doesn’t even require your credit card information, nor is He quick to let you know that you can cover the cost of the overpriced slop you’ll likely clog your kitchen sink with for three easy payments of $33.33 because it’s the number of the trinity or some such spiritual innuendo they tried to force in there just to make it Jesus-approved.

We have step-by-step instructions on weathering any hardship, time of trial, or travail from Jesus Himself, but for most, it’s not complicated enough. Do you mean to tell me all I have to do is seek the kingdom of God first and foremost? Yes. Well, that just seems too easy. What about biohazard suits and underground tunnel systems? Didn’t find those things itemized in the Bible. The seeking the kingdom thing, though, that’s in there. Start with that first, and see where it takes you.

All kidding aside, you can be the most prepared prepper to ever prep in the history of prepping, and if you’ve not sought the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you are ill-prepared for what is coming. You cannot bypass and circumvent Biblical instruction and then expect things to work out well.

You can’t shake your fists at the heavens, demanding to know why God wasn’t there when you didn’t do the thing He said you needed to do to ensure that He would be. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The onus here is on you and I. It is something we must do, not something that can be outsourced or forced upon us.

Jesus told us what we needed to do; now, we just need to go ahead and do it. As long as you make people who prey on your fear rich, they will continue to prey on your fear. That’s the way it’s always been and will continue to be because human nature is what human nature is. At some point, however, you’ll have to wonder why the people telling you the sea levels are about to rise are buying beachfront properties.

How come they’re eating steak while you’re trying to keep the down pureed lima beans they sold you for the price of a small used sedan?

With love in Christ, 

Michael Boldea, Jr.