Notes of Faith June 4, 2023
Walk Away from Worry
Trade Your Cares for Calm
Imagine your whole life untouched by worry. What if faith, not fear, were your default reactions to threats? Envision a day, just one, absent the dread of failure, rejection, and calamity. This is the possibility behind Jesus’ question, “Why are you afraid?” (Matthew 8:26 NCV).
Fearless
Fear Less Tomorrow
Fear may fill our world, but it doesn’t have to fill our hearts. It will always knock on the door. Just don’t invite it in for dinner, and for Heaven’s sake, don’t offer it a bed for the night. The promise of Christ is simple:
When I was six years old, my dad let me stay up late with the rest of the family and watch the movie The Wolf Man. Boy, did he regret that decision. The film left me convinced that the Wolf Man spent each night prowling our den, awaiting his preferred meal of first-grade, red-headed, freckle-salted boy. My fear proved problematic.
To reach the kitchen from my bedroom, I had to pass perilously close to his claws and fangs, something I was loath to do. More than once I retreated to my father’s bedroom and awoke him. Like Jesus on the boat, Dad was sound asleep in the storm.
How can a person sleep at a time like this?
Opening a sleepy eye, he would ask, “Now, why are you afraid?” And I would remind him of the monster. “Oh yes, the Wolf Man,” he’d grumble. He would then climb out of bed, arm himself with super-human courage, escort me through the valley of the shadow of death, and pour me a glass of milk. I would look at him with awe and wonder, What kind of man is this?
Might it be that God views our storms the way my father viewed my Wolf Man angst?
Jesus got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves, and it became completely calm. — Matthew 8:26 NCV
He handles the great quaking with great calm. The sea becomes as still as a frozen lake, and the disciples are left wondering,
What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!
— Matthew 8:27 NCV
What kind of man indeed.
We can fear less tomorrow than we do today.
God’s Word for Your Worries
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? — Psalm 27:1
So don’t be afraid. You are worth much more than many sparrows.
—Matthew 10:31 NCV
I tell you not to worry about everyday life. —Matthew 6:25 NLT
Take courage. I am here! — Matthew 14:27 NLT
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul.
— Matthew 10:28 NASB
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the Kingdom. —Luke 12:32 NASB
Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me... I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am. — John 14:1, 3 NLT
Excerpted from Trade Your Cares for Calm by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.
Fear not, for I am with you always! It would seem that drowning in a small boat on a stormy sea would be reason to fear, but not according to Jesus. Oh, we of little faith. Since faith is a gift, let us pray for greater faith! God has a great desire to provide us with spiritual gifts, so ask! You have not because you ask not, God tells us through James. Fear not!
Pastor Dale