What is happening in the financial sector?

This is Tuesday the day after the stock market lost 4.5% of its value following the failure of two of the five biggest investment firms in the U.S. Lehmann Brothers Inc. was declared bankrupt leaving approximately 25,000 employees out of work. Meryl Lynch was saved from that fate only because it was purchased by Bank of America at fire sale rates. The Wall Street Journal's lead article on Monday announced that the U.S. financial market is shaken to its core. No one knows what is going to happen next, but no reputable analyst thinks it will be good. Opinions in the media sources vary from very, very, bad to simply bad.

Are you bothered by this? I imagine that you are. These facts reflect real pain and instability that ordinary and extraordinary people are experiencing. And yet we remember that our rock is Christ. Though the world will totter and fall, God our rock will maintain us.

But knowing that does not always still our anxiety, not does it answer the immediate question of how to pay the mortgage if you just lost your job. How does it help us to center on God in these times?

I think it makes all the difference. The scriptures remind us over and again that He will never leave us. "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. ... Do not fear, for I am with you!" Isaiah 43: 1,2,5.

Hold onto the Lord. He has seen you through unstable times and He will see you through this too.