Wednesday, September 24, 2003
“LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED; NEITHER LET IT BE AFRAID” (John 14:27)
But I am a Christian. I am sure of my salvation. Yet fear plagues my life. What should I do next?
From reading the Bible it seems that a second step to overcoming fear is to TAKE TIME TO DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD; TAKE THE TIME TO DEVELOP A COMPANIONSHIP WITH HIM. No one needs to go through life alone. Actually, life is too difficult for anyone to try to go through it alone. And there is no need to “go it alone”. God wants to accompany us throughout life. Having accepted Christ as our personal savior and received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we are not alone. Jesus is praying for us (Hebrews 7;25); the Holy Spirit indwells us (lives within us) to guide and comfort us. And we have other Christians walking with us.
But we must develop a companionship with God. It is not enough to just be right with God. We must stay right with Him. A lot of the Psalms talk about God being the antidote to our fears. Check them out: Psalm 23:4; 27:1-3; 46:1-3; 56:3, 4, 11; 118:6 to list a few!).
If our relationship with God is right and we are in daily companionship--fellowship with God--then we can conquer our fears.
But the catch is that it takes time to develop a companionship with God. It may well be that the curse of our time is BUSYNESS which causes SHALLOWNESS. We need to take time to be holy. There is an old hymn by that title: “Take Time To Be Holy”. If we don’t take the time, we won’t be holy. A 5-minute “devotional” and 30-second “tip-of-the hat” to God just won’t cut it. It takes time to be holy—and a lot of it!
Adam and Eve walked with God. How long has it been since we have even walked, let alone “walked with God”? Walking, in a safe place outdoors or on an indoor track or treadmill, can be useful prayer and meditation time. But we are so busy. We live life by the time clock.
Our church is gearing up to join over 4,000 other churches in the “40 Days Of Purpose” Campaign October 5 through November 23rd. The dilemma is this: Our lives are already way too over crowded. Now with the “40 Days of Purpose” Campaign we are going to be asked to add three new habits to our schedule. There is a daily devotional reading of about 15 minutes a day; a weekly meeting in a small group for six weeks and a weekly verse to memorize that will probably take less than 5 minutes.
But most of us need to decide first what we are going to cut out of our schedules before we begin 40 Days of Purpose. We can only have so many “irons in the fire”. We are so busy. We must be warned not to associate LIFE with ACTIVITY. Not everything in our lives is of equal value. From time to time we just need to ask, “What am I going to stop doing?” in order to have time to develop holiness, a companionship with God.
Someone one time quipped, “We should live in such a way that when they carry us into the church for our funeral, God won’t have to ask, ‘Who is it?’”
So a second step to overcoming our fear is to develop a companionship with God.
I’ll talk about the next step probably in my next Blog.
Jim
posted by jim 10:30 PM 0 comments
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