Only hours into the new year, a man killed15 people and injured about 30 after he drove a rented pickup through a crowded New Orleans street, then exited his vehicle and began shooting. Around 8:40 a.m., another man detonated a car bomb in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, injuring nine (the driver was the only casualty). Shortly before midnight, 10 people were wounded in a mass shooting outside a New York City nightclub.

What a sad, violent opening to the year! What is going on? If this approximates your response, you aren’t the only one. Yet this is not an occasion for fear, but for faith.

On one level each attack may have its own explanation. The New Orleans attacker, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, reportedly carried an ISIS flag and at least one IED (improvised explosive device) in the truck, suggesting a terrorism-related motive. The Las Vegas explosion may also be terror-related. By contrast, the New York attack seems more like the type of gang violence that occurs regularly in America’s large cities.

On a deeper, more universal level, the sinful world has been dominated by sinful men ever since Cain slew his brother Abel. It was violence that so corrupted the prediluvian world that God resolved to destroy it (Genesis 6:11). It is unjust and evil, but it is also the way of the world. By violence Absalom usurped his father David, Ahab obtained Naboth’s vineyard, and Babylon overthrew Jerusalem.

God knows and understands the depths of human suffering. He himself entered into it. By violence the chief priests and Pilate delivered up the perfect God-Man to death, that he might be made the perfect high priest for those whose lives are full of suffering (Hebrews 2:10). God sees, and he will judge all violence, making the wicked man’s evil come back upon him (Psalm 7:16).

On an intermediate level, governments have an opportunity and responsibility to apply these deep principles by adopting policies that promote human flourishing by protecting people made in God’s image from violence. This includes everything from stopping mass shootings in progress, to deterring standard-issue crime, to preventing future terror attacks before they happen. This requires well-trained law enforcement, effective crime prosecution, and security agencies that are clear-eyed about their mission and purpose.

The FBI’s initial response to the New Orleans attack raised questions about that last provision when they initially denied that the attack was related to terrorism before later reversing their position. The FBI then searched for additional conspirators before stating on Thursday afternoon that the attacker acted alone. But their earlier certitude, which they later walked back, raised questions about whether even this declaration is the final word.

Whether Jabbar acted alone or not, America remains vulnerable to terror attacks, either by radicalized Americans or by foreign infiltrators who swept across the porous southern border over the past four years. Border Patrol apprehended and released hundreds of persons on the terror watchlist, not to mention hundreds of thousands of “got-aways,” so who knows how many terrorists are in the U.S. right now, planning a future attack?

The aim of foreign terrorists is often to disrupt Americans’ way of life, whether that is by driving through New Year’s festivities or delaying the 2025 Sugar Bowl. The aim, as implied by their name, is to instill fear and terror in Americans.

Unfortunately, some future terrorist plots will likely succeed at perpetrating violence. But whether that violence will cause Americans to live in fear is not up to them, but to us.

Christians have the best reasons to not walk in fear, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). Paul’s immediate concern in that verse to encourage his disciple Timothy to boldly preach the gospel without fear.

But the truth is that the same providential, omnipotent God who could protect Timothy’s ministry is watching over our lives too. Our heavenly Father provides for creation so minutely that he even ensures that sparrows eat and flowers bloom; surely he will provide for us too (Matthew 6:25-33).

If the Lord is our shepherd, even the most devastating reports cannot shake our security. David confessed, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). And we can too.