The Ups and Downs
It’s not so good to watch the news anymore. Everything is bad as far as the media is concerned. Especially when you look at the stock market. I do not own any investments in stocks or bonds so on the one hand I’m not personally affected by all that I hear these days. However, according to the nightly news everything is bad and people are in panic mode. When people panic they can be misled into doing foolish things.
When you look at the stock market or futures trading one thing becomes apparent right away — it’s all ups and downs. There are times when stocks are up and there are times when stocks are down. That’s the way it has been always. Another thing is that it’s all based on guesses. You buy a stock because you guess that it’s going to go up, or you sell a stock because you guess that it’s going to go down. Right now things are going down fast, but eventually they’re going to go back up. It has happened over and over again throughout history. Just hold on and don’t panic. I would also suggest that when stocks are down it’s not a good time to sell.
My advice is to put your trust in God and not in the ups and downs of the stock market or anything else in life.
My trust is in God, too, Karen. I read this the other day in my Bible. It is from the small book of Haggai in the Old Testament. The prophet wrote this some 2,500 years ago: “For thus says the Lord of Hosts, ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land, and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of Hosts. ‘The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of Hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace.'”
I believe Haggai was speaking of our day and that in this shaking, the church of Jesus would emerge resplendent and radiant, as she becomes the “Desire of All Nations.”
We are going to see a shaking of the entire world system before Jesus comes to judge it, and economic empires will collapse, and that probably includes America’s. Yet in all of this, Christians have God’s promise that although he may not promise to give us an estate on Camelback Mountain, he does promise to see to our basic needs and get us through his shaking. We will NOT be shaken. As Christians, we need to remember this and not panic as the world’s economic system melts down. It must if the horrible scenes in Revelation and other prophetic books are to unfold.
As Christians, we need to say to a shaken and scared world, “Here is the way to walk. Here there is security for your soul!”
The prophet Habbakuk wrote at the end of his prophecy, “Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls — Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.”
Come what may, I will set my heart to worship the Lord and joy in his salvation.