Living in Fear?

“…The same power that concurs the grave lives in me…” These lyrics, from the song You Are Here, are very encouraging! In church this week, we talked about fear. It’s something we all deal with every day. But it is something that we should be able to overcome if we are constantly walking with the Lord.

There is a story in Daniel 6 that we can refer this to and it is the one about Daniel and the Lions. Daniel was a hard and faithful worker, one who never did anything wrong, which made the other workers jealous and in result they wanted him fired. Although they couldn’t come up with any way to get Daniel fired, except to have him disobey the king. So the workers went to the king and told him how great he was and how no one should pray to anyone except him. The king agreed that this was a great idea and asked if all the employees knew about this new law he was going to create, and all the employees said yes, they all agree it should be a law. But it ends up Daniel was not informed. The employees knew that Daniel prayed at home three times a day to God so they gathered around to watch him. That evening they came back to the king and told him that Daniel had been praying to his God. As much as the king hated to he commanded Daniel be thrown in the lion’s den, since he disobeyed his commands. The king told Daniel, “I hope the God you pray and serve will rescue you.” The next day the king came back to see if Daniel’s God saved him, and indeed he did. God had sent angles to shut the mouths of the lions and when Daniel was removed from the den there was not even a scratch on him. The king then declared “Daniel’s God is great, and I order that everyone in my kingdom must respect the Lord God, who rescued Daniel from the hungry lions.”

Daniel had complete faith in God. He didn’t have a fear of the lions because he knew he had done nothing wrong. Now today, I know I have lots of fears and things that come up that I talk myself out of doing when I know I really should. Those things are like the lions, which is also satin, who is talking us out of the good things God wants us to do. He doesn’t give us any faith that we can handle the task God has laid out in front of us.

People who have faith in God know that playing it safe is most times more risky. Standing up for what you believe in can be hard, especially in religion, but in the end it means so much! People who also have faith in God know that the bigger their God is the smaller the Lions (Satin temptations) will become. There is no such thing as a risk free faith. But in this Christian faith, God promises us the security of an everlasting life; if we believe and serve our God to the fullest while we are here on Earth. So taking the all of the risks he places in front of us are totally worth it!

I encourage you to chase those lions in your life away! Think about what God has called you to do that maybe you’re not doing because of all the lions holding you back. People with real courage and faith in God chase lions, people without that courage stand back and hide while more lions build up. 2 Timothy 1:7 ~ “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” The path to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear!

Patients

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” ~ Psalm 37:7

Patients…man, that’s a hard thing for me to do at times! Within the past few weeks so many things have changed! I have ended my junior year of college, friends have graduated and moved off, I continued looking for a new job, and waited for a sign of what summer is going to be like! I have been asked so many times what my plans for the summer are going to be and what activities I plan to be a part of this coming fall. Up to this point my answer has been “I have no idea, it all depends on this new job”. I have been waiting and waiting for just some kind of clue and my patients have been running thin!

I had a wonderful opportunity this past week to talk with a friend about Gods plan for us and how hard it is to wait and have God show us just enough to keep us going. Seeing our friends graduate and so many not knowing what is next for them, gets us to thinking what is soon in store for us! Finally being accepted into college and moving away from home opens so many doors and you feel that you can see forever down the road of life! When really as you continue college and you get to that final year, reality kicks in and you arrive at another set of doors. There are so many options but you have no idea what lies behind each door that is in front of you. Faith, that’s what we are all relying on now! Knowing that God has this amazing plan for our lives and he will reveal those special things that determine our lives at the most perfect time is what makes life what it is, and makes it so great!

Back in April I ran for President of my sorority. Not fully knowing my plans for next year, I felt the urge to run. I have loved being an officer this year and it has been a great growing and learning experience. I continued to pray that God would place me where I needed to be next year. I knew that I would be graduating, thinking about graduate school, and possibly moving. I didn’t want to take on anything I couldn’t handle or fully accomplish; I know God took control of this choice of mine! He stepped right in, as I knew He would, and told me that this position was not meant for me. It wasn’t until today that I realized why. God has provided me with a wonderful new job that opened up another door in my life. This job is using my degree and gave me hope for graduation and other options that I wasn’t able to see before.

It’s funny how we can even begin to think that we have this great plan for our life! God is the ultimate decider and for us to try to step in and make our own decision is just plum crazy! “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened” ~ Matthew 7:7-8. I encourage you to think about your future no matter where you are in life! Start praying for God to show you those big thing that are still going to happen in your life, but make sure they are shown to you in HIS time! Learn to be patient with everything; it is totally worth it in the end! “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus” ~ Philippians 4:19

Imitator

Since school has once again come to an end, I have seemed to have a lot of down time to think and reflect on things. Lately I have been thinking about my family and more importantly my brother. He is about to graduate high school and start a whole new chapter in his life. The one thing looking back that I wish I would have done differently was had a better and closer relationship with God before entering college.

When I got ready to leave for college, I was not only leaving my family, but I was also leaving my town (which I knew everyone), all of my friends, and the town itself (which I knew my way around with my eyes closed). I was scared out of my mind and being four hours from home seemed so far away! During those first few weeks of school while trying to adjust to a new area, classes, and work on making friends I had to rely on the help of God so much, more than I have ever had to before! But looking back on the transition and where it has led me to today I wouldn’t have changed a thing! My hope for my brother is that he will get involved and have the same kind of experience I have had.

I want him to become a Man of God; someone who is so intentional with God before interacting with anyone else. I hope he is so strong in his faith that nothing can pry him from the rock he stands firm on. I hope that he uses Gods words when he speaks to others and begins makes new relationships. I want him to be the kind of guy a girl wants and is proud to date, as well as be the guy a true Woman of God needs in her life. I have seen and watched so many great relationships grow while in college and I love watching how the guy treats the girl; that’s what I hope for in my brother.

While thinking about what I wanted to see out of my brother, my conscious came over me and said “Well, are you the “Woman of God” that you should be? You keep wanting all of these things for your brother, but are you being the example he needs and applying this to your own life?” That was a big eye opener for me! “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” ~ 1 Peter 2:21 This verse is so great! We are to follow in Christ footsteps. He is the one we should want to be like, live like, and serve like. He has given us all so many great qualities and equipped us in a way that we can accomplish his plan for us!

So as for me, I look at my life differently now. I look at each moment in a special way, I look at each person I meet as someone so unique and different, and I look at each opportunity to serve as a pleasure and a delight! This has given me such a boost of encouragement and a challenge to work on every day! I hope that you take time to look down into your everyday life. See who you come in contact with that you may regularly try to avoid and what opportunities you let pass you up. Think about the relationships you are building with others are they just between you and the other person or is God the center and helping them grow? I encourage you to be the Man or Woman of God that God wants you to be! “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” ~ 1 Corinthians 11:1

How Life Formed on Earth

This morning I was trying to think of a topic to write about, so I as I was checking my email I ran across the yahoo news highlights. There was an article titled “How Life Formed on Earth”, so being curious I wanted to see what this author had to say. And just as I thought all that it mentioned was scientific things. They said a compound known as, pyrophosphate, could have been a source of energy that allowed the first life on Earth to form.

Now as Christians, we know how life was formed. It says in Genesis1:24-28 “And God said “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kinds.” And it was so….Then God said “Let us make men in our image…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it”

All God had to do was speak and the things of this earth were created. Now this article online is up 4,235 comments and is still growing. As I read comments there were some that said:
• “It literally terrifies me that so many people choose fairy tale over science. I realize that fairy tales are easy to understand and always end in happily ever after but that’s not how life works.”
• “There is no God”
• “So the next time you think science is useless, I want you to pray your way through every illness, infection and don’t ever take a Tylenol again. Just pray. The next time you want to take a trip, either walk or pray God transports you there.”
These comments just fired me up! To sit there and read all of these crazy comments about how God doesn’t exists and had nothing to do with the creation of all living things on Earth is just crazy! Hebrews 11:1 ~ “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Yes, it is faith we are relying on, but reading God’s word and relying on him will expand that faith and make us stronger in believing what He has told us.

Some of the Christian’s responses to these comments from unbelievers were harsh, and would never be of any encouragement to any hard-headed unbeliever. Titus 1:9 ~ “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sounds doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” Sure these Christian comments were accurate but they had no way of backing up what they said, it was primarily just screaming, saying “YOU’RE WRONG”.

When God gives you these opportunities to stand up for him remember how he tells us to teach others, with encouragement. Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God that bring salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for these blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

The Ark

Just the other day, I was watching TV and movie came on called Evan Almighty. If you have never seen this movie, it is based on the story of Noah’s Ark. I had only seen this movie once before, and I guess I wasn’t thinking deeper into it when I first saw it as I did today. As I watched it for the second time I began to see the exact resemblance to this story. I have heard the story of Noah’s Ark since I was a little kid, but I never related to it as much as I did now.

As most of you know the story of Noah’s Ark is based on God’s observation of the corrupted Earth. He saw that the Earth was filled with violence and in result decided to destroy all life. He knew that Noah was a righteous man and walked with God, so God gave him instructions to build an ark, in which he was to bring two of every kind of animal and his family. Once the flood came and left, God commanded Noah to leave the ark. Noah offered a sacrifice to God, and God resolved to never again destroy the Earth. God established his covenant with Noah, his sons, and with all living things and placed a rainbow in the clouds.

Now this sounds like a simple story, all the guy had to do was build a boat, gather some animals, and hang out on a boat until God told him to get off. Sure Noah was a believer and follower of God, so this process and willingness to do as He commanded should have been easy. But if you think about it today, God commands us to do little things for His glory and we so often just push it aside and say we will get to it later. If Noah would have said “Hey God, I’m kind of busy this week. Let me get my personal things done first and then I will see if I can get to it next week.” Noah, his family, and the animals would have been wiped out in the flood as well. God was ready to destroy the Earth and He will do what he commands when He commands it.

I challenge you, as well as myself, to look and listen for those things, both little and big, that God needs you to do for Him and not push them to the side. We are living here for Him and to bring glory to His name. Be like Noah, a righteous follower of God who will never think of himself higher than others, but willing to serve anywhere that is needed. And as the movie says "The way to change is world is by doing one Act of Random Kindness (Ark) at a time"