I was couch-stuck last Tuesday and watched three network television shows in a row:  NICS, NCIS New Orleans, and Person of Interest.  It is near the end of the season, so the stories are building to a climax; all have cliff-hanger episodes to encourage us to watch next fall.  The shows are well written and deal with criminal activity; this week the good guys were suffering loses against well-organized, well-funded enemies.  The list of evil bad guys was long:  terrorists; murderers; power hungry politicians and businessmen; smugglers and drug lords.  A common theme in the three shows was an amorphous group meticulously planning the destruction of a city, a nation, or the world.

Near the end of the evening I realized I was really getting paranoid.  When and where will the attack come on me and my family, friends, and neighbors?  Who is out there trying to steal my identity, destroy our culture, and crush my church?  How can we escape the coming wrath?

Fortunately, I remembered a great Pat Quinn sermon presented recently from Isaiah 43, simply titled, Four Reasons Not to Fear.  His summary line from David Powlison is comforting:  “We have good reasons to be afraid, let’s not kid ourselves.  But, we have better reasons not to be afraid.”  The four reasons: God has redeemed you; You are God’s witnesses and servants; God is doing a new and glorious thing in you; God will blot out your transgressions.

The good news is not just that Jesus died on the cross to redeem us from our sins and then rose from the dead to prove his claims were valid, although that is indeed a great comfort.  God’s plan includes work for his believers to do, and He will continue to do new and glorious things for those who believe in him.  He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4.4). No matter what unknown (or known) forces are plotting my destruction, I know someone who is bigger, better, and has more resources.