2021-03-19
Psalm 27:1 NKJV
An old adage says, “Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” It exaggerates the problem, and as a result, you expend valuable energy in ways you shouldn’t. For example, sometimes you avoid things that can’t really harm you at all. Like the man who returned to his vacation cabin from a hike, badly scratched and bruised. “What happened?” his wife asked. “I met a snake on the trail,” he answered. “Don’t you remember,” his wife responded, “the park ranger told us yesterday that none of the snakes up here are poisonous?” Her husband replied, “They don’t have to be poisonous if they can make you jump off a twenty- foot cliff!” Clearly the man’s fear – not the snake – was the problem.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but…today of its strengths.” As long as you allow fear to take the wheel, you’ll never go where God wants to take you, or discover and develop the talents He has placed within you. And here’s the great thing: God will help you to confront and conquer the fears that are controlling you.
David the giant slayer, author of Psalms and Israel’s beloved king, often found himself with his back to the wall. Writing about such an occasion he said, “Make haste to help me…Lord” (Psalm 38:22 NKJV). “Be pleased…to deliver me” (Psalm 40:13 NKJV). But David knew who to turn to: “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” When God is the source of your strength, you can face your worst fears and overcome them.
Soul food: Job 21-23; Matt 24:15-25; Ps 116:12-19; Prov 8:10-13
2021-03-18
Joshua 3:13 NLT
To enter the Promised Land, the Israelites had to cross the River Jordan at flood stage. Were they afraid? Wouldn’t you be? Nevertheless, the only way to reach their destiny was to do the very thing they feared!
When you let fear take hold, you become even more fearful and end up creating a debilitating cycle that works like this: Fear breeds lack of action. Lack of action breeds lack of experience. Lack of experience breeds ignorance. And ignorance breeds fear. It makes you afraid to do the very thing that would be beneficial to you.
Taking action means you’ll have to move into the unknown and do the untried – and that can be scary. But if you give in to your fears, you won’t move forward. You don’t receive the benefit of what you avoid, nor do you gain the valuable experience that will make your life better. As a result, you remain ignorant about that area of life, and ignorance always breeds more fear, making it that much harder to push ahead and get things done.
Harry Truman remarked: “The worst danger we face is the danger of being paralyzed by doubts and fears. This danger is brought on by those who abandon faith and sneer at hope…by those who spread cynicism and distrust and try to blind us to our great chance to do good for all mankind.”
Somebody said fear is the darkroom where all our negatives are developed. It’s interest paid in advance on a debt you may never owe. And it undermines faith – in yourself, in others, and in God.
Soul food: Job 18-20; Matt 24:1-14; Ps 116:1-11; Prov 8:8-9
2021-03-17
Job 4:14 NKJV
Fear can be devastating. Why? Because it breeds more fear! And the most insidious thing about fear is its ability to exaggerate. C. Everett Koop, former surgeon general of the United States, observed, “People just have an inappropriate sense of what is dangerous.”
Do you fear flying? The fact is, you’re more likely to die from choking on a piece of food than in a commercial airline crash. Are you afraid of dying in a robbery? You’re twice as likely to be killed playing a sport than you are to be stabbed to death by a stranger. Are you afraid of sharks? Every year farmyard pigs slay more people than sharks do. Are you worried about having surgery? You’re sixteen times more likely to die in a car crash than you are from surgical complications.
Seldom do the things we fear come to pass. In our minds we conceive coming disasters that will likely never happen. And when they don’t occur, we think, “That was a close one!” The truth is – our thoughts were the only things creating potential danger for us.
So how should you deal with your fears? By practicing the truth of this Scripture: “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages]” (Isaiah 26:3-4 AMPC).
Soul food: Job 15-17; Matt 23:23-39; Ps 19; Prov 8:6-7
2021-03-16
Genesis 3:10 NKJV
We tend to think that successful people are exempt from fear. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every generation in history has experienced fear. The first person God created was Adam, and the first recorded words Adam spoke were these: “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Fear is genetic; it’s part of human nature. Studies confirm that our seven greatest areas of fear are these: (1) finances, (2) health, (3) career concerns, (4) parenting struggles, (5) family relationships, (6) accomplishing personal goals, and (7) death. Are you fearful and anxious in any of those areas?
Fear can be a destructive force in your life. One of the old English words for fear means “sudden attack.” It’s akin to an old German word for fear that means “ambush or snare.” That’s what fear does; it attacks us and takes us captive.
So what’s the answer? Faith in God! Fear weakens, but faith strengthens. Fear imprisons, but faith liberates. Fear paralyzes, but faith empowers. Fear disheartens, but faith encourages. Fear sickens, but faith heals. It’s been said that the words “fear not” are recorded in Scripture 366 different times. If that’s so, God has given us a “fear not” for every day of the year – and one for leap year! And here’s one of them: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine” (Isaiah 43:1 NKJV).
Today God is with you and He promises to strengthen and guide you in every situation you face.
Soul food: Job 11-14; Matt 23:13-22; Ps 11; Prov 8:4-5
2021-03-15
Psalm 118:6 NKJV
During the Great Depression unemployment hit 25 percent of the American population. Savings accounts were wiped out by bank failures, farmers lost their land to foreclosures, and people were having trouble just feeding their families.
During this dark time Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the nation in these words: “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
What most people didn’t realize is that the president himself had experienced some dark hours during which fear paralyzed him. Roosevelt was born a child of privilege and educated in Europe, at Harvard, and at Columbia Law School. But at age thirty-nine, he was stricken with a case of polio that left him severely disabled. During his recovery he developed an extreme fear of fire. He worried he wouldn’t be able to escape because of his disability.
But in time he overcame his fear, regained the use of his hands, and even learned to walk again with the aid of braces. He reentered the political arena – fearlessly campaigning to become the governor of New York, which he did in 1929. He then went on to become one of America’s greatest presidents and guided the nation to victory in World War II. In his memoirs Roosevelt recalls how when he turned to God for help, courage, and guidance, he received them.
Are you afraid today? If you are, stand on this promise: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Soul food: Job 8-10; Matt 23:1-12; Ps 115; Prov 8:1-3
2021-03-14
Proverbs 31:28 MSG
Throughout history poets and orators have been lavish in their praise of motherhood. George Washington said, “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am, I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education I received from her.” Abraham Lincoln wrote, “My mother’s prayers…have always followed me. They’ve clung to me all my life.” And Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “I cannot tell you how much I owe to the solemn word of my good mother.”
Official observation of Mother’s Day in America is credited to the tireless letter-writing and lobbying of one persistent woman. When Anna Jarvis’s mother died in 1905, Anna determined to devote her life to a crusade for giving public recognition to the mothers of the nation. On learning that designation of an annual “Mother’s Day” required an act of Congress and a presidential proclamation, Jarvis became a one-woman lobby.
Evasion, indifference, and hostility didn’t deter her. Nine years later she rejoiced in the success of her efforts. President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a Congregational resolution, declared an annual observance of Mother’s Day, the first one on May 9, 1914. Since then, observance of Mother’s Day has spread to many countries around the world. In 1948 Jarvis died, blind and penniless, in Philadelphia, but her dream had been realized.
The Bible says, “A good woman is…worth far more than diamonds…She senses the worth of her work and is in no hurry to call it quits…When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say and…always says it kindly…Her children respect and bless her” (vv. 1, 9, 17, 28 MSG). Could there be a more worthy tribute?
Soul food: Isa 61:1-9; Luke 4:16-30
