Today I am finally prompted to write about race relations and the violence that has occurred for the last week throughout our country, just as we were seeing a light at the end of this COVID-19 tunnel. This is a Christian blog written to show the reality of life as a child of God. There are those in our society who try to make everything political; usually stereotyping those who disagree with their agenda. This post is not political. It is simply the truths that God has shown me through His Holy Spirit over my 66 years as a Christian.
What is going on now is not a war between people of different races. It isn’t a war between people at all. We are in the middle of a spiritual battlefield. There is no neutral zone. The battle is raging between good and evil; between God and the enemy. Which side you choose has nothing to do with the shade of your skin, but it has everything to do with the content of your heart. Growing up in southern Indiana during the 1950s, I witnessed the evil of “systematic racism”. I also saw the effective way to deal with and change it. Today, by comparison, racism is no longer systematic, but there are pockets of evil that make it seem so at times.
As a new Christian In 1954, I watched Billy Graham integrate his team and all of his crusade meetings, even in the Deep South. In 1957, I watched on TV as Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood side by side on the platform in front of a multicultural crowd in Madison Square Garden, in New York City and proclaimed that there is but one race – the human race, and everyone in that race needs Jesus Christ as their Savior. Then I watched as thousands of people with every shade of skin come forward together to accept Christ. Later, I watched intently as Dr. King delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. before an even larger, peaceful gathering. Peaceful demonstrations and gatherings like those of the past are productive and good, but attacks on people and property are from the enemy as surely as hatred and police brutality. Dr. King knew, as I know now, that you don’t defeat our spiritual foe by using his evil tactics. The Spirit within us is more powerful than the spirit that is in the world. All we have to do is release that power through prayer; then join together peacefully and prayerfully to demonstrate our unity. We will see the tide of this spiritual battle turn toward good right where it is raging in the hearts of men and women.
Satan uses his evil tactics on us as individuals when we are most vulnerable and he does the same thing with nations. Our nation is hurting and weakened; not only by the virus, but also by over-zealous responses to it. Before we could get our churches and businesses back on their feet Satan stirred up this wave of violence. He wants us to think we can’t overcome his evil plans, but I have read the end of the story in the back of my Bible. Spoiler alert! Faith, prayer and the hosts of heaven will be victorious. Actually, Jesus has already declared victory when he said from the cross, “It is finished.” All we have to do is follow Him.
I have a new t-shirt that I love to wear. The message on it reads, “The devil saw me with my head down and thought he had won until I said AMEN!” Don’t even think about giving up. We will get through all of this together. God bless each and every one of you reading this.