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“You will not be afraid … of the pestilence that stalks in darkness … a thousand may fall at your side … but it shall not approach you.”

Where do these words come from and what do they mean? We would like to know because they fit so well with the present moment. The words come from all-time bestseller, the Bible, which presents a certain way of thinking that could be called the evangelical mind, the e-mind – the mind of Christ.

This unique, completely coherent way of thinking can be presented in four threads:

What is God ready to give us?
What are the obstacles for us to receive this?
What did God do to remove obstacles?
What should we do to remove obstacles?

Man lives as he thinks. All problems are resolved by changing thinking. And Christ promised “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free” (Jn 7). The more we learn to think with the evangelical mind, the more we will experience solutions to our problems and the extraordinary path through life.

So I invite you to the world of evangelical mind (e-mind). I hope that in the following articles I will be able to pose intriguing questions and give equally intriguing answers, always starting with what God is ready to give us.

And why do I invite you? I had the privilege of giving about 2,000 lectures on this subject, exploring the secrets of hermeneutics, studying texts in original languages (even the entire Romans, word by word), learning to translate them into the language of modern man (doctorate in communication of concepts at the Catholic University of Lublin), but above all because these words have become a personal experience. So I can promise it won’t be a random word game.

What is God ready to give us?

Here is one remarkable statement from an all-time bestseller: God “is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb 11). How can you experience this? At least in this way as at the beginning: “a thousand may fall at your side … but it shall not approach you.” (Ps 91).

God has no problem with that. God is not afraid: “Oh, that only this man would not be hurt, because he passed too close to the person who is the carrier.” How do we know that? “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them.” (Ps. 34) “Fearing God” is in the Bible a description of people who express their respect for God through interest in His words and promises. At the time of Jesus, these were large crowds of pagans who came in large numbers to Jewish synagogues scattered throughout the civilized world from Spain to China and listened to the Old Testament Scriptures, translated into Greek a few decades ago. It was among these crowds of pagans interested in God’s Word that most Christians came in the first centuries. It was these “fearing God.”

So what is the promise about? God actively guards those whom He knows that if the right conditions were given to them, they would recognize Him, would turn to Him with confidence – that none of such possibilities would be wasted.

God has no problem with this and does not leave it as a matter of chance. Some things do not depend on us. Even if we were very careful. My wife entered the store and an elderly friend met her and suddenly gave her a hug instead of social distancing. What can my wife do about it that everyone likes her? Should she wrap herself with barbed wire? Some things do not depend on us. But God has the power to save us. He rewards those who seek him (Heb 11).

What is the obstacle?

Just seek God. But … what is this brutal, offensive statement against us found in Romans ?! “… there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless” (Rom 3).

In the nature of man, there is no such mechanism, ready attitude, to seek God, take initiative. That is why there is so much indifference in this matter. Sometimes you get the impression that nobody is interested.

“I do not agree! There are so many religious people! ” However, let’s see what God transmitted through the prophet to the most pious nation of the time: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me “ (Mk 7). This is pretending to be interested, learned behavior. The heart is far away.

According to the mind of Christ, this problem must be seen with all sharpness. Do you recognize it? In your and my nature there is no reflex to seek God. The matter is clear. You are not looking. You are indifferent.

“I do not agree! I am religious! I care! ” The child wiser than the father. You must make it clear. You are not looking. Your heart reacts with indifference. We went our own way and we don’t care. We are only interested in prosperity and religion, but not God as a Person. This is our nature.

So far, we have not found “rewards those who seek Him” or “sets up a fortified camp and carries survival,” or “even a thousand will fall at your side, it will not happen to you.”

For now, we do not benefit from “rewarder of those who seek Him” or “encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them” or “a thousand may fall at your side, it shall not approach you.”

What did God do to remove the obstacle?

We remain indifferent, but the image suddenly breaks into our consciousness: “He, who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all …” (Rom 8). God shocked us with the death of His Son, who gave Himself to crucifiction for us. We were cold and indifferent, but God drew our attention.

In a world of indifference to God, you can say a billion words and it doesn’t touch anyone.

But when someone loses their lives … In the ancient world people also remained indifferent, but when they saw those who preferred to be torn apart by wild animals in stadiums, rather than renounce testimonies that they saw Christ alive after He died on the cross, it knocked many out of indifference.

For His part, God does everything to knock us out of indifference. And most of what He is ready to do was told by one of the ancient prophets: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ez 36)

What should we do to remove the obstacle?

What is the smallest thing we can do with this indifference, which is our initial state? “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him.” We need to do something like those people, “God-fearing”, who expressed their respect by deciding to listen to God’s words. They came in many places where one could listen.

You can also make this decision. “I’m interested in the Word. I make a decision in my mind that I am turning back from my previous path of indifference and I will be interested in You, God, I will want to meet You. I make this decision in my mind and I am asking You to touch my heart of stone and make it alive for You.”

We need to do this to remove the obstacle, to experience what God can do – fulfill the promise:

“A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you.”

Grzegorz Bednarczyk

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