It seems everyone wants to be a victim. Everyone wears weakness as a badge of secular honor, and demand others validate their fears. As the new year bears down on us, may I suggest a different way?
Scattered throughout the Old and New testaments of the Bible are variations of the phrases “be strong,” “be courageous,” ‘take courage,” and “fear not.” It is almost like God knows the whole “I’m a victim” thing is spiritual poison.
It also explains why the purveyors of cultural rot prefer you to adopt the fatalistic posture of a victim. People who cower and cringe rarely fight back. The political elite want us to live lives full of anxiety, so that we can be more easily controlled.
Isaiah still speaks to us when he wrote, “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’”
Rather than live shadowy lives as cowering supplicants, we’re called to walk in confidence.
As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” He later adds, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Yes, there are some fearsome fights ahead of us in the new year, but it doesn’t mean we should be fearful of them. When the people of God were preparing to cross in the Promised Land, God charged their leader Joshua to, “Be strong and courageous… I will be with you.”
Throughout their conquest of the land, you find Joshua and the people echoing that phrase back and forth as words of encouragement.
So should we.
Be strong and courageous; fear not.
The year ahead presents itself with a great many opportunities to fight and struggle for the cause of self-governance in our republic. Take courage from the knowledge that you are not alone in this struggle, that other men and women are likewise doing what they can, where they can, to advance liberty.
Only be strong and courageous.
