JANUARY

Are you unhappy and concerned about world conditions? Are you hiding a miserable fear of war? Are you worrying about the future of your children and grandchildren? Take the first four words of the first chapter of Genesis—"In the beginning God" and rest in them. Feel the reassurance that comes as you turn from the unhappy human picture and permit the strength of that three-letter word, God, to permeate your thinking as well as your being. The word God was never meant to be used as an exclamation nor an expletive. The word God spoken quietly, humbly, resolutely, gratefully becomes an inner healing Force to fear, discouragement, unhappiness, discord.
Now turn to the ninetieth Psalm and read, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations—from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." To read these words aloud not only once or twice but three times is to acquire a courage that completely overrides any lurking fears.
The chaotic fury of our lives in today’s world demands that if we would find spiritual peace, it will of necessity have to be in the comforting conviction: "—in the beginning God" and "from everlasting to everlasting—God." Out of that conviction will come the understanding that all things in a God-created and God-governed universe must be in divine order. However, if you and I would experience the operation of divine order in our lives, we must hold to that order not as a mere belief but as a demonstrable truth.
Don’t be too quick to scoff at the idea of divine order in a technological world even though it may be far removed from your everyday line of thought. It is obvious in many respects that man believes he has become his own person. He no longer needs God. What can God do for him that he is unable to do for himself? Technology has opened the door to a new way of life. From the standpoint of technological development we seem to be exploding.
However, as a result of this tremendous scientific unfoldment is the world a better place in which to live? Have world conditions improved? Is there less poverty, fewer homeless, a decrease in greed, lust and selfishness? Is war totally outlawed?
The Apostle Paul knew that all things in a God-governed universe are in divine order. Therefore, he admonished Timothy to stir up the gift God had given him, and to remember, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Perhaps the time has come for you and me to stir up the gift God has given us; the time to realize that without the conscious awareness of God, of a divine order that embodies power and love and a sound mind is to waste all our years.
Our only recourse is to acknowledge gratefully God in the beginning—God
from everlasting to everlasting. If we would survive this man-created destruction that threatens us, we must hasten to make the keynote of our lives a three-letter word, God, spoken with awe and reverence.