Jesus calls us in Matthew 6:25-27 to not worry. God will take care of us. The Bible also says 366 times "Do not be afraid." God does not want us to be afraid because he is with us. So why do we still worry and fear?
Some will say this is because of our lack of faith. If we just had enough faith we would not worry or be afraid. I think that is a logical answer, but when I see several people who I know have extreme faith wrestle with worry and fear I question that answer. However, I believe there is some truth to it. Let me explain.
When we say a person lacks faith we are often pointing to a lack of faith in God. They are saying the person does not trust God enough. What I think may be happening is a lack of faith in something other than God. I think the problem may be a lack of faith in their ability to make decisions, a lack of faith in the information they have, or a lack of faith in other people.
The last one being a powerful one. In our society we learn, whether taught or intuitively, to not trust other people. We often jump to the conclusion that others are out to get us and they are only looking out for their own good. We also have been let down by other people, so our faith in others declines.
I know our faith first needs to be strong in Christ, but I also believe we need a strong faith in other people especially in other Christians like those in our church family. I believe God especially calls us to build our faith in our church family. To live the life God has called us to we are going to have to work together and be able to trust and rely on one another. This means we need to be willing to open ourselves up to our church family and trust they will not hurt us. It is a difficult thing, but it is a step God has called us to as a Christian community. God does not promise you will never be hurt, but he does call to us saying, "Do not be afraid, I will be with you."
MISSION: Find another Christian that you trust and share about what you can do together to work on building trust with others.
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4 comments:
This is where I would like to say thank you James. A while ago I was struggling with a fear of mine and something you told me was to say out loud, I am a child of God. I do this quite often and it's amazing how it makes me feel... almost like it's my shield! So I just wanted to say thank you!!!
As a child I would worry almost all the time. Growing up it held be back, kept me from being who I was and hurt the ones around me. Every other month I was on a different medication and it never seemed to help except make me sick. This made me miss school and fall behind. With this worry came depression and hatred. Sad because no one understood me and mad at the world for being so incredibly confusing. I was all alone in my head with no one to help. Life just swallowed me whole.
Years later, a friend made contact with me and introduced me to the SPUMC. My life has completely changed. I don’t have fear of the unknown anymore or worry about much (hard not to with kids) and I finally feel that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. Thanks for being wonderful people and accepting me for who I am. I haven’t felt love like this for a very long time. Pastor James and Helen...YOU ROCK! We have an awesome church family and I'm proud to be a part of it. From the bottom of my heart...Thank you everyone.
In recent years I have struggled with some deep fears and worries, and my health did suffer from it. As humans we are dealt some pretty hard fears to deal with and so hard to put them aside. I knew I needed to turn them over to Christ but that tooke some time. As I began to share my worries with close friends and my loving family, those fears began to lift. I still deal with fears and worries daily, but thru prayer, worship, and trust in our Lord, I can walk stronger. Thank you James for your messages, it truly touches so many of us and really gives us so much to take with us to get us thru each week. God Bless.
Thank you for sharing your stories! It is awesome to know the power God has over our fears when we can trust him and have a Christian Community to walk with us.
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