Seeing Past Fear To Grace

…do not fear anything that is frightening.

 

1 Peter 3:6

 

 

 

Tell me you can't relate to this scenario…

 

You talk to someone who is in the middle of a storm and they testify to God's overwhelming sustaining grace. You marvel at their peace and joy that belies their suffering. But instead of praising God for His evident faithfulness, you begin to imagine yourself enduring their ordeal.

 

How would I cope?

I don't think I could handle it.

I hope it doesn't happen to me.

 

With high-definition clarity and color you see yourself in the midst of their ordeal... grace is nowhere to be found, and you are gripped by fear and dread.

So often we ignore the awesome displays of God's faithfulness to people in storms and instead imagine ourselves in their situation, minus the grace of God.

 

We would do well to heed Elisabeth Elliot's wise reminder that: There is no grace for our imaginations.

 

God is not waiting in the wings to help us through whatever horrible imaginary trouble we can conjure up today. But His goodness is stored up and will be abundantly poured out whenever we walk through a real storm.

 

Let's resolve that the next time we observe someone going through a storm, let's turn our imaginations to gaze on the marvelous, abundant, overwhelming and timely grace of God—the same grace that is be available to us daily.

Fears That Keep Us From His Presence

Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So He got into the boat and left.

 

Luke 8:37

Jesus did many miracles when He lived on earth and one of those miracles involved the deliverance of a demon-possessed man. The people of the community witnessed this awesome demonstration of God's power when Jesus commanded the demon spirit to come out of the man and go into the herd of nearby pigs—the man was healed and sat at Jesus' feet.

You would expect the people who witnessed this to embrace Jesus as one performing good deeds and to honor Him—the opposite was true. Instead, they were overcome with fear.

 

Why?

 

Many of us respond the same way to Jesus when He does an out-of-the-ordinary act among His people. We are fearful because we have never personally experienced this before. So, we draw wrong judgments.

God is able to do far exceeding above what we think.

 

It is often subconscious fears that prevent us from going to a deeper level with Him, just as the people in Gerasenes could not benefit from Jesus' presence because of their fears.

Have you feared God because of what He might require of you?

 

Have you feared that He might ask of you something you are not prepared to give?

 

Do not let your fears drive Him from your presence—You can trust Him.

A Tool For God's Work

With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

 

Judges 6:21

How does God call people into His work?

 

There is a clear pattern in the way God calls men and women into service for Him. Almost every major leader has been called while he or she was in the midst of performing his or her everyday duties. For example:

 

• Moses was a shepherd
• Peter was a fisherman
• Matthew was a tax collector
• Luke was a physician
• Paul was a tentmaker
• Moses was a shepherd 

When God called Gideon to free the people of Israel from the oppression of the Amalekites, He did so while Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress.

 

Like Moses, Gideon argued with God, saying he was nothing special, so how could he be used of God to save Israel?

 

Gideon acknowledged God by preparing an offering to Him and then the angel of the Lord did an interesting thing with Gideon's offering. He took the tip of his staff and touched the meat and the unleavened bread and as he did that fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread.

 

As with Moses, God chose to do a miracle with a staff, the instrument that symbolized Gideon's work life.

 

Why would God do this?

 

It is because God wants us to know that the tools He has given each of us are the tools He wants to use to demonstrate His power. However, in order for that to happen, we must yield our tools to Him for miracles to be manifested through them.

Have you yielded your tools to the God?

 

God wants to work through you—allow Him to do that starting today.

The Shepherds Voice

He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.

 

John 8:47

One of the great mysteries of the universe to our logical mind is how God can communicate with six billion people on the earth at the same time. It is one of those mysteries we must let go of because our "hard drive" would crash if we had to explain and understand this before we believed and trusted in Him.

 

It is as though God places a computer chip in each human being, and when we place our faith and trust in Him, it becomes activated and we begin to communicate with Him. Jesus says that if we are children of God, then we can hear God's voice. He further explains this relationship in the following parable:

I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice (John 10:1-5).

The Shepherd is always representative of Jesus and sheep are representative of God's children. This passage tells us that the Shepherd communicates with His children—we are called by name and we can listen to our Shepherd's voice.

 

There is another comforting aspect to this relationship, and that is that the Shepherd goes before the sheep to prepare the way—Jesus has already gone before us today to prepare our way.

Knowing the Shepherd and His voice allows us to have the assurance that we will not be fooled by another shepherd's voice—the sheep know His voice. It is only when we are dull of hearing that we mistakenly hear another's voice and follow it.

 

Sin can create a poor frequency in our communication with the Shepherd. And it is important to make sure our frequency is free of static (sin) so that the Shepherd can lead us and go before us in all things. Because if sin is present and active in our lives, we are breaking our fellowship with our Shepherd which in turn will keep us from being fully tuned to all that He is speaking and leading us in. 

Finally, distractions can also keep us from hearing our Shepherd's voice. When the sheep get entangled in the fence or wander off, they get too far away to hear the Shepherd's voice. We must stay in close proximity to the Shepherd to hear His voice—listen and follow—He wants to lead you.

Unnecessary Anger

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

 

Ecclesiastes 7:9

Every day of our lives we are placed in situations that engage us with other people, whether it is in our homes, the office, or in public places and in those situations anger can arise when we least expect it.

Think of anger in this way, it is like warning lights on the front of your car dashboard. They signal that there is something going on under the hood, and we should take a look to examine the source of the problem.

 

Anger can be traced to a few sources.

 

When we lose control of a circumstance that we have placed certain expectations on and those expectations do not result in our desired outcome, we are tempted to get angry. The source of this type of anger is both fear and protection of personal rights. You see, when we believe we have a right to something, we have not given God permission to allow an outcome different from what we want. If an outcome is different from our expectations, this may stimulate fear which may lead to unnecessary anger.

Know that the source of your anger is the fear of what might happen to you, what others might say about you, or the fact that you no longer are in control of the circumstance and this creates fear in you.

The next time you get angry ask God what is the source of that anger?

 

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). Give up your rights to expectations that God never gave you and you will find a new freedom in God you never knew you could have.

Changes

And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

 

Daniel 2:21

 

 

In the words of the great philosopher, Forrest Gump, "Change happens." Change occurs to anyone, anywhere, anytime, expected or dreaded, wanted or unwanted, inflicted or by design, sooner or later. Although change is a one-syllable word, it has a variety of meanings, comes in a diversity of forms, and causes different results.

 

What is change?

 

Some dictionary definitions of change are:

 

• To make different in form
• To transform
• To give and take reciprocally
• To transfer from one to another
• To become different
• To pass from one phase to another

These are just a few of countless definitions and we could further the search in a thesaurus and discover an infinite amount of synonyms such as revolutionize, adjust, amend, swap, trade, switch, conversion, movement away, digression, and restore. The list seems endless…

 

We can choose to react or be proactive toward change.

 

God can use changes to strengthen us, build character in us, test or prove us, humble us, and get our attention. How we accept, deny, or otherwise react to the change or changes before us is entirely up to each individual. Through this process, God reveals His strength, His character, His love for us, and the fact that He is God.

 

Resisting or accepting change is a personal matter. In the poem known as the "Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Niebuhr, the first part of it says:

 

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

 

The key word in this poem is God and it is only through prayer and studying the Word that we will be able to "know the difference."  We need to find a time in our day to set aside to be with our Heavenly Father, spending time in prayer and in the Word. Remember that good communication requires a sender and a receiver—God may be trying to send you a message of a change.

Test That Prove God Is Enough

He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

 

Psalm 37:6

As a believer grows in trusting obedience and love, God often brings a test that seems uncharacteristically unkind.

 

The test: being wrongfully judged by those close to you.

 

It is not for the reactionary and it cannot be passed over by simply gutting it out. Supernatural grace is the only means of passing this one.

 

It is one of those tests that Jesus had to experience Himself when being tried by the court of public opinion, the religious community, and the government of His day. His response to the government was silence. His response to the religious establishment was silence at the final judgment. To the rest of His accusers He remained quiet and left vindication to the Father.

 

He lived the commandment He gave to the disciples:

"But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked" (Luke 6:35).

How do you react when you are accused or mistreated for no reason?

 

Do you listen quietly, or do you justify each and every action?

 

Most of us take pride in doing what is right and expect the same from others, especially from other believers. God knew that if we are to be a true follower of His, we would enter these tests from time to time eventually.

 

Many times throughout our walk as believers there are ample of opportunities to be wronged, misunderstood, and maligned. When God brings a measured assault against one of His children, it is to find out if he truly believes in the cross. The cross is where each of us is given the opportunity to die to our pride, our reputations, and our ego. When He allows a measured assault upon us, it is to find out if the cross is sufficient.

 

During these times we need to let the pride and arrogance that God wants to remove from our lives be crucified and then thank God for the opportunity to be crucified with Christ. Then our righteousness will shine like the noonday sun and the justice of our cause will be in His hands.