Fearful

My family and I had the opportunity to go this past Monday and Tuesday to the Wisconsin Fellowship of Baptist Churches. It was their annual meeting and held in West Bend. We traveled over and had a great couple of days making some new acquaintances, seeing old friends, and getting know newer friends better.

The theme this year was from 1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

The phrase they took was "stand fast in the faith." Fred Moritz was the main speaker and did a phenomenal job of challenging us to stand fast, be strong, to understand that the source of our strength is not in us but is from the Lord.

I am reminded of Paul's comments in 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

What do we have to fear? What do we have that could cause us to cower in dread and timidity? The power of God is mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. It is the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, cast demons out of people, healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, gave strength to the lame, and today transforms a sin-dead soul into a forgiven-eternally saved saint!

This power is the same power that rests in each and every one of us who knows Christ as our Savior. This power is what grants us the authority to go and proclaim a message of deliverance and redemption.

Fearful? Of what? A threat on our life, a shunning of a relative, a losing of an old friend? Afraid of losing your job, losing your health, losing your parent, losing your spouse, losing your child?

Fearful? Of whom? The devil, the political activists, the unregenerate neighbor, the waiter at our table? The bill collector, the soldier at the door who is there to tell you your loved one is missing or dead while serving his/her country?

There are perhaps many scenarios that would warrant our response to be fearful. But really, what do we have to fear? For God is not its author. God is not the bringer of fear. He is the One who grants POWER! His power, the creative power of a God who can and did create everything in six literal days according to His perfect design. The Power of this God created storms and yet He also calms storms.

He is the One who grants us LOVE! A love that sees the burden of a sin-sick soul and the consequences of a life who rejects Christ's sacrifice upon that cross. A love that is not sensual, selfish, or based upon it being reciprocated. We have the love of Christ which then compels us to love others and to demonstrate that love. It is a love that passes all comprehension and yet is something to be known. It is a love that sacrificed all and gave it to you and to me. It is a love that sees past the immediate and beholds the potential of all that is good in the hand of this gracious and loving God.

He is the One who grants to us a sound mind, a discipline, a view point on reality and the way we are to live. Fear causes a frantic tendency. We lose perspective; we lose faith. Fear stirs up imaginations and tendencies to lose touch on what is real. God is REAL. God did not put into us a spirit of fear, but gave to us a source of control and understanding. We can grasp the direction we are to go because we have His Word. We can gain the comfort we need because we have His Spirit. We can gravitate toward the right support group because we have His Body, the church. Nothing can truly shake us if we are living by faith and not by fear.

We are not to live in fear. Fear cripples, distracts, and states that we have not a God who understands, comprehends, or transcends to our situation, needs, or time frame. Fear takes our eyes off God who CAN and declares that there is now before us a situation that God cannot do anything about. But that is not true. Fear focuses upon the lie and Faith focuses upon the truth.

I have not a God who can't, but a God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. (Ephesians 3:20)

Fear CANNOT, but God certainly CAN!