Friday, December 12, began like any ordinary day. Donn and I got up as usual and prepared for the day by having our individual quiet times. The scripture that accompanied one of my devotionals was Psalm 112, the entire chapter.

I paused after reading the first half of verse seven: They will have no fear of bad news… Hmm…  Often when I read something like this, it’s because God is preparing me for bad news. But not always… Perhaps there would be no bad news today.

As the uneventful day passed, I forgot about the “bad news” possibility. Then I noticed a text that was in response to one I’d sent a few days earlier, apologizing for a text I’d been forwarding to someone else that kept going to her.

She assured me it was no problem, but mentioned something else that surprised me. It was when I questioned that piece of information that the bad news came. I was stunned and shocked. Definitely very bad news, life-changing bad news for someone we loved very much!

After sharing the bad news with Donn, I went back to reread my morning scripture beginning at verse six through the beginning of eight:

Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;

So definitely God didn’t want us to be shaken or afraid because of the bad news. He wanted us to trust in Him. Then I skipped back to reread verse three through five of Psalm 112:

Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever. Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.

Everything stabilized in my mind. I looked at Donn and said, “You know what we have to do.”

Because of God’s goodness to us, we had the wealth and riches to make this bad news go away, and I knew God was saying good would come to us if we were generous and lent freely.

I wept when I thought of other times in our lives when we wouldn’t have had the money to make this bad news go away. All we could have done was weep with those who would be affected personally.

As I sent the text that gave reassurance that we were in a position to loan the funds that were needed, I was filled with joy and thanksgiving to the God who’d given Donn the job many years ago that enabled us to be in a position to help. God had given Donn that job after he’d given up a job as an electrical engineer at God’s request so that we could sing full time for a year, a decision that likely caused many people to think we were out of our minds.

This reminds me of the chorus of a song by Mercy Me titled Crazy:

I have not been called to the wisdom of this world
But to a God who’s calling out to me
And even though the world may think
I’m losing touch with reality
It would be crazy
To choose this world over eternity

Sometimes we don’t see as clearly the results of choosing to obey God rather than following the wisdom of the world, but this time it was so clear that the reason we didn’t need to fear bad news was because, in that long ago time more than forty years ago, we’d chosen to follow God’s wisdom.

I don’t know what’s going on in your life today. I don’t know if you’re facing a decision that requires you to choose between God’s wisdom or the world’s. But if you are, I pray that this blog will give you the incentive you need to make the right choice.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your amazing faithfulness to us when we choose your wisdom over the wisdom of this world, regardless of what the world may think of us. May we always remember that you know the plans you have for us, plans not for evil but for good, to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). Thank you for making it possible not to fear bad news. Amen.