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March 14 - March 14, 2020
“Do not be afraid” are the words of the one who can match speech with action. He is the sovereign King who really is in control. The efficacy of the words is directly related to the authority, power, and love of the one speaking them.
The greatest possibility for rest and comfort lies in the knowledge of the true God.
fear’s interpretations are not always to be trusted.
let fear point us to the knowledge of God, and let the Spirit of God, by way of Scripture, teach us the knowledge of God.
God’s self-revelation is a higher authority than our feelings.
The God who calls you to trust in him when you are afraid will spend a great deal of time showing you that you can trust him. He doesn’t ask you to live with your eyes shut. Faith is not blind.
The more you read Scripture, the more you actually talk to God rather than think about fear.
Open your Bible anywhere and you will land on a story of faithfulness.
He doesn’t hear because of us and the quality of our prayers. He hears because he is the God Who Hears.
God prefers the impossible. Although he often cares for our needs before we know we have them, his mighty acts are showcased best against the backdrop of insurmountable odds. Anything less would detract from his greatness.
the challenges of life are ordained by the Father and King. They are neither random nor accidental.
Fears and worries live in the future, trying to assure a good outcome in a potentially hard situation. The last thing they want to do is trust anyone, God included. To thwart this tendency toward independence, God only gives us what we need when we need it. The emerging idea is that he wants us to trust him in the future rather than our self-protective plans.
trust can be fed with the evidence that God, indeed, is trustworthy. This is God’s method with us. He asks for no leap of faith, no blind trust, only our acknowledgment of his history of faithfulness.
As for me, I want to watch and endure, not worry. I want to be like the night watchmen who are waiting to see first light. God is the God of suspense, but it is a suspense that teaches us peace. He is the God of surprises, but the surprises are always better than we could have dreamed. I can’t put him in a box and assume that he should act according to my time schedule and according to my less sophisticated version of what is good. I need the mind of Christ. I can do with nothing less.
Fear is nurtured by ignorance.
Whom do I trust? Where is my faith? Those are the questions that all worriers must ask, yet all of us already know the answer. Our trust is divided. We don’t put all our eggs in one basket—even God’s—because that’s too risky. Our trust might not pay off the way we hope. We are reluctant to simply say to our Father, “I am yours,” and stop worrying. Jesus knows this. Fear and worry reveal that our faith is indeed small.
You trust God for some things but not others. You trust him for heaven but not for earth.
Children in the kingdom of God hold onto possessions loosely. They know that the King is powerful and generous, and they know that what they have is on loan anyway. They are quick to help those in need.
You hoard because you don’t believe the Father is generous.
We are not the owners of our material stuff; we are stewards, but not owners.
When you know that the kingdom is God’s alone (though he gives it to us), that is the only thing that can lead to peace and rest. Owners are the ones who do all the worrying; stewards simply listen to the owner’s desires and work to implement them. Owners are responsible for the outcome; stewards strive to be faithful.
When you are confident that you are the Father’s treasured possession, you are also confident that his loving care will continue forever.
Anxiety asks for more information so it can be prepared for the coming apocalypse. It also asks for more information so it can manage the world apart from God.
When we are paralyzed by fear or anxiety, Scripture gives us our bearings and the Spirit gives us power to take the steps of obedience.
God does not promise grace that removes hardships.
His grace to you is intended to accomplish his kingdom purposes, not your own.
A withholding lifestyle means that we don’t believe that there will be manna tomorrow. We don’t believe we will be given enough grace.
we want to calm ourselves not by trusting in the Gracious one but in seeing the future.
The hurdle that was always in front of me was that I couldn’t imagine that grace, which is another way of saying that I limited God to the size of my own imagination.
God values strong foundations and gradual growth, and such foundations are established as we feed on him and his words.
When we are fearful or worried, we feel like we are walking in a dark place that is known to be dangerous. Into this vulnerable place comes the God who is light, and the light penetrates everything. Light means life, truth, the banishment of evil.
God likes his people to be outnumbered because then there is no mistaking that he alone is the Deliverer.
Worry scans the universe looking for more worries to accumulate; it needs to be directed to what is most important.
Anything truly beautiful is more attractive the better you know it.
while anxiety prefers immediate deliverance, God might delay it, giving us time to trust him and wait by faith. So the psalmist will wait with confidence, which is to wait by faith. His God is absolutely reliable. While a very reliable human deliverer might encounter accidents and other unforeseen events on his way to our deliverance, God is never waylaid. No one can interfere with his care and deliverance.
We are not so sure that the Lord can be trusted with some of these things, so we look for help elsewhere.
Worry, therefore, is not simply an emotion that erodes our quality of life or a pain to be alleviated. It is a misdirected love that should be confessed. It is trying to manage our world apart from God. It is making life about our needs, desires, and wants.
Whatever you think you need will control you.
we can fear people to the point where we disobey God.
When the kingdom of God is ruling our hearts, we aspire more to serve than be served, honor more than be honored, and love more than be loved. This doesn’t mean that we don’t care about being loved; it simply means that we always want to outdo others in love.
Throughout Scripture God is the one who loves more than he is loved. He always makes the first move. He advertises his extravagant affection for us even when we are indifferent or opposed to him.
when we are rebuffed we might find that our goal was not so much to love as to find a different strategy to help us be loved.
Our sin is not just against God’s law; it is against God.
My world must be very small for me to be preoccupied with the opinions of others.
Will we be perfect forgivers, perfect lovers? Certainly not. We will be forgivers and lovers who confess our sin and turn to Jesus for mercy and grace to forgive and love more and more deeply.
Don’t think that God is like a human being.
You are thinking in terms of perfection; think in terms of faithfulness. The normal Christian life is a race of repentance. The very fact that you are convicted of sin is a work of the Spirit (John 16:8), so you can accept conviction with a smile on your face, knowing that it is just one more evidence that you belong to Christ.
The reality is that the Spirit convicts of sin. One piece of evidence of kingdom life is that you will see more sin, not less.
The rules of engagement are simple. When you see sin, you confess it as ultimately being against God. You respond in gratitude for the forgiveness he already gave you because of Jesus’ death, which was the payment for sins. Then, knowing that you have been given the Spirit so you can do battle with sin, you attack. You ask for the power to love. You ask others to pray for you and counsel you. You adopt a zero-tolerance policy with sin. When you fall in defeat, you learn from it and get right back into the battle. You will see more and more sin, but you will also notice that the Spirit is
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Confession to another person is not a way to artificially unload guilt. The one who hears your confession is not a priest who will grant absolution. The reason you confess something private is to test your own heart. It is also a way to close the door to one of Satan’s condemnatory devices. Satan delights in keeping all things in the dark, where they can accumulate more condemnation, but we can do battle by keeping our lives in the light.
