By Jacqueline Melancon
The Post Newspaper Contributing Writer
Have you ever heard someone ask “where are the good old days?” I ask that sometimes myself. I remember growing up and was able to have the childlike innocence of not being concerned about walking or playing outside, not concerned about riding in the car, not concerned about going to the store, and not concerned about going to school.
The way things are going today it’s easy to lose confidence and be concerned about these trying times. What is confidence? Is it the feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something?
Some of the things we use to be able to put confidence in, is no more:
· Parents used to be able to let their children go out and play in the neighborhood knowing they would be safe. The reason is because everyone looked out for one another. Now strangers are kidnapping children out of their own front yards. Drive-by shootings in broad daylight in the neighborhoods are now commonplace.
· Driving down the street or on the freeway used to be a normal routine. You got in the car expecting to get to your designation safely. Not anymore, since road rage is at its all-time high with killings.
· Going to the grocery store is a necessity because we all need to eat. That part of our routine has been interrupted. People who don’t like you for whatever reason shoot up innocent people they don’t even know.
· Parents send their children off to school for an education. That is not a safe environment anymore. Children are taken hostage and shot in the very place they went to learn.
· A person looked forward to their retirement savings (401K, stocks). After years of saving the stock market crashes, all the money you deposited in banks, credit unions, IRAs, CDs and other savings accounts are now gone..
The little things we took for granted are gone. God is the one to turn to whether small or great. It’s out of our control and only He can help us. Psalm 46: 1 reads, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Psalm 118: 8-9 reads, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” We should trust in God because He is almighty with no limitations. He loves, cares and protects us. He is faithful and there for us no matter the situation. And He always keeps His promises. Man is limited and falls short of his own expectations. Man can have the right intentions, but at times he is powerless to make it happen. Man changes his mind and at times just doesn’t want to do the right thing. But God is faithful and will come through.
1John 5: 14 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” God is waiting on us to call out to Him for help. Ask as many times as you want because you are His child and He’s available to help. Ask according to His will and the Bible states He will hear you, and since we know He hears us, we will have what we asked of Him.
Trust God in whatever you are going through. Stop looking at what it looks like now. Start seeing what God said about it. Have the confidence and faith that He will be there with you and sustain you. You are not alone.
Hold on to God.
