Faith or Fear?
On the evening news “if it bleeds it leads.” The world’s media indoctrinates us to be fearful…. it constantly reminds us that this world is filled with danger, turmoil and uncertainty. When Moses led the children to the edge of the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s mighty army was pursuing them and they could see the dust clouds from the chariots in the distance. Moses said, wait upon the Lord and you will see his deliverance.
Oswald Chambers said, when the crisis comes and courage is required, God expects his men to have such confidence in him that they will be the faithful and reliable ones.
A crisis is a difficult or dangerous situation that needs our full attention. The Bible says, we are in the midst of a spiritual battle. The devil is on a rampage to divide and conquer. He inflicts pain, opression, distress…. an unstable situation that will precipitate an undesirable outcome. The tipping point is a crisis that is about to topple the status quo.
The crises around us are in the pandemic, politics, social media, schools, the government, the culture, and even in church. However, The heart of the righteous shall not be afraid for the righteousness of God shall prevail. From God’s perspective, there is neither god news or bad news, it’s just news. One more domino falling is just one more event that will lead to the ultimate return of our Lord Jesus Chrsit.
For Men of a certain age, it’s easy to fear for our children and grand children. We fear for the culture and society around us that has deteriorated from the “good old days” of our youth. However, the Bible says there is nothing new under the sun. The devil is up to his same old tricks. His purpose and his methods have not changed. His purpose is to divide and conquer…. to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Ultimately his purpose is to divide our hearts from. God’s heart.
Chambers said, if you Christian are afraid of the things of the world, what difference are you than the world? Has God not delivered you from the snare of the adversary… have you not witnessed God’s victories in your life? Has he not brought you through the snares of the Fowler and the arrows of the wicked one? If God be for us who can be against us? He who sees the sparrow fall, will he not surely hold you up?
When you ask someone, “Where do you think you’ll go after you die?”, their answer will determine whether their life is hid in Christ with God. If they answer, “I think I’ll go to heaven,” the next diagnostic qauestion is, “when you’re standing at the gates of heaven and God says, ‘why should I let you in?’, what would you say?” If they have a works based answer, then they don’t know that salvation is by God’s grace through Christ and not by their own performance.
The book of James says, faith without works is dead. Even though we have been saved by grace, even though Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast,” The very next verse says, “for we are God’s workmanship (his great work of art, his poetry in motion) created in Christ Jesus unto good woks which he has foreordained that we should walk in them.”
The prophet Isaiah said, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
If we doubt, worry, and fear because of the circumstances around us, then we have believed the devil’s lies instead of the truth of the word of God. The battle is for hearts and minds… Therefore set your affections on things above and not not he things of the earth.
Men of this world seek refuge in the things of the world…. they seek comfort in drugs, drink, self indulgence, the pursuit of the riches of the world. They seek comfort in everything except the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 12 says, in the face of evil, be not overcome for evil but overcome evil with good. It’s the goodness grace, mercy, and love of the Lord that calls a man to repentance. Lincoln said, the best way to defeat your enemy is to make him your friend. Contrary to popular opinion, peace is not the absence of war. The ultimate peace is to reconcile our hearts with God’s heart through Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice on our behalf. You can’t have peace without the Prince of Peace… Jesus said, my peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The devil’s purpose is to lead us to sin by separating our hearts from God’s heart. Peace is the absolute end of all strife and contention between God and man. Jesus Christ is the one who reconciles… He is the one who reconnects our heart with God’s heart, thereby making peace with God… for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
With our hearts reconciled to God in the unity of the spirit of the bond of peace, we can dedicate ourselves to God’s purpose… for what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. God set us apart so that we can walk the path he’s prepared for us to walk in fellowship with him, his son Christ Jesus and one with another in the household of faith…
GK Chesterton said, courage is almost a contradiction in terms. In order for a soldier to survive, he must count himself already dead. A soldier dedicated to give his live to serve his brothers in arms greatly increases the probability of his own survival. If he values the protection of his fellow soldiers and the accomplishment of his military objective more than he values own life, he will not fear the enemy. The ultimate enemy is death. If he no longer fears death, this increases the likelihood he will survive the crisis of the battle.
Similarly, as the apostle Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. For I was crucified with Christ…nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
The first and great commandment is to love God above all. This is also the first of the Ten Commandments… God said, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. The literal translation of this verse from the Aramaic text reads, “thou shalt have no other Gods between your face and my face.” The reason that when we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, nothing will come between us.
When we love God above all, then we can love our neighbor as ourselves. First we need to have our vertical relationship with God in alignment so that we can relate horizontally with our neighbors. Colossians 3:14 says, “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Charity, the love of God, is the tie that binds our heart with God’s heart, our Lord Jesus Christ, and with one another in the household of faith.
The choice is faith or fear. God never honors fear but he always honors faith. According to Galatians 5:6, nothing else really matters, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
There is no fear in love, for perfect love casteth out fear. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind…
That in loving Him above all, we may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
