Category: Faith > Fear

Re: Verse reading– Jeremiah 1 (day five)

It’s an interesting conversation. God declares His intent to use Jeremiah in the role of prophet. God prefaces His “call” with a personal and intimate description of His knowledge, wisdom, and care in creating Jeremiah.

Jeremiah begins to process God’s announcement. It’s as if he began asking the wrong questions. Questions like, “Am I capable? Am I qualified?” (Notice the focus “I”) Jeremiah’s answer- “No, I am not, because I am too young and I do not know how to speak.”

God challenges the focus by stating, “Don’t say ‘I am too young’ ”. He then begins to give the answers to the questions that Jeremiah should have been asking/thinking. “You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.” (What are my instructions?) “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.” (Will you be with me?)

As God speaks to us, the right questions are “What are my instructions?” and “Will you be with me?”

Re: Verse reading– Jeremiah 1 (day four)

What a picture of a beautiful promise!  God has called Jeremiah to be His spokesman.  He already knows Jeremiah before he was even born.  God also knows the trials Jeremiah will face as he carries out His call.  God answers all of Jeremiah’s fears…fears of not knowing what to say and fears that the people will not listen because of his youth.  After God makes His promise (v.8), He proceeds to train Jeremiah.  In v. 11-12, God tests him to reassure Jeremiah that he accurately sees what God is telling him.

Has God done that for you?  Have you ever learned a truth or lesson from Scripture, only to be tested then in that same truth?  God works constantly in our lives to clarify His Word to the people around us.  We are His spokesmen.  Maybe it is time for us to “gird up our loins, and arise and speak to them.”  (v.17)

Re: Verse reading– Jeremiah 1 (day three)

“Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth.”  Fear doesn’t indicate that you’re unfit for God’s use.  To the contrary, fear is often evidence of his fervent call in your life.  That was certainly true for Jeremiah, whose fear of speaking was his response to God’s call to lift his own shaky voice.  When he used that fear as a starting point for a conversation with God, God drew nearer and placed his fingerprints at the very point of Jeremiah’s anxiety.  He never forgot how close God came to him, no matter how hard life got.  Are you afraid?  Chances are your fear is a telltale sign that God is calling you to take the very action that terrifies you.  When you speak your fear to God, he’ll respond with a nearness you’ll never get over.

Re: Verse reading– Jeremiah 1 (day two) “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” vs. 6

I am too young. I don’t speak well. I have not been summoned before the king. Over the past several weeks we have encountered the very real, very human reactions to the call of God upon those we now consider giants of our faith. How many times and in how many different ways does the Lord need to remind us that he will make whatever limitations we may see into Kingdom opportunities?

But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. vs. 7-8

If we continue to look at the broken, imperfect creature that we are and think that we in our own sufficiency will be able to carry out the assignment, then we are right, we can’t do it. But God has not called us to do these things alone. He is more than able. Let him be the source of your strength.

Re: Verse reading–Jeremiah 1 (day one)

Eventually, all men will face the undeniable fact.  God is.  He knows us.  He has always known us.  He has a purpose for every life, and the most regrettable mistake that a person can make is to ignore God’s plan in pursuit of his own silly and temporal ideas.

God’s call to Jeremiah was an assurance of these unbending realities.  “Before you were born, I knew you and appointed you to be a prophet.”  v 5.

Wait!  What about personal choice?  Doesn’t God give each of us freedom to make this decision?  No.  The choice that we have–all of us–is “God”, or “Not God”.  Contained within this huge truth is the surrender of all freedoms to the vastly superior wisdom and plan of an eternally good heart.  If God is, why wouldn’t you trust Him?

Easy life?  No.  Real life?  Yes.  I follow the One who knew me before I was born.

Re: Verse reading–Esther 4:4-17; 7:1-6 (day seven)

“I will go to the king. . .and if I perish, I perish”–4:16.

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake. . .will save it.”–Jesus (Luke 9:24)

It is the ultimate irony.  “Playing it safe” is really unsafe!  The truly dangerous choice. The way of wisdom is to RISK LIFE in pursuit of Christ.

Esther decides to go see the King.  A teenage girl decides to break up with her bad-news boyfriend.  A Christian couple decides to stay where God called them in deliberate defiance of strong “consumer” desires.  The call of Christ requires us to abandon personal safety as our highest value.  We lose the life we wanted, the life we imagined.

The result?  We find true life!  Now and in eternity. We save ourselves and our days for life as God designed it to be. . .a great and dangerous adventure with the living God.

Re: Verse reading–Esther 4:4-17; 7:1-6 (day four)

Faith demands action!  There is no way to live by faith and be a person who is complacent and uninvolved in what is going on in culture.  Mordecai told Esther that if she did not act in faith, God would use someone else to do the job He had prepared her to do.  Esther would have a huge price to pay for her inaction though.

Have you ever tried to avoid doing what you knew you should do?  Have you said, “Let me pray about it,” when you already knew the answer?  Walking and living a life of faith requires us to become involved in God’s work.  It is not an option.  Our faith is an active faith…no hoping someone else will do it..no pew sitting.  It is our responsibility.  We must be prayerful and move in God’s direction and power, but the key word is that we must move!  Ask God to stir your heart and increase your faith…there is work to be done.

Re: Verse reading–Esther 4:4-17; 7:1-6 (day three)

“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.”  Power as firewall against fear.  It seems like a good plan.  But power is not a place to hide from the things that scare you, it’s a resource for helping the weak.  Power is a useful tool, but it’s a poor insulator.  When you will not face fear, you will not learn its limits, and so it becomes, in your estimation, more terrible–even invincible.  Fear will then defeat you.  If, on the other hand, you employ power to help those who have no voice and no standing, fear fades away.  This is power rightly stewarded.  It’s why God has given it to you, however much of it you possess.  How will you use it today?

Re: Verse reading–Esther 4:4-17; 7:1-6 (day two) For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place…4:14a

Have you ever found yourself in that place where things are going well. You have worked hard and all the craziness of your life seems to be headed in the same direction. Job is secure, family is healthy, retirement is planned for…and then. Then your brother-in-law asks to move in for a while, or your boss asks you to take on a new assignment, or maybe it is something else calling for your attention. You’ve worked so hard to get to this point, and now change? Perhaps your first reaction is to just sit quietly and hope the issue goes away. How is that working for you?

God hasn’t promised us that things will always go as we hope. He does call us to action. To be a part of his kingdom plan. The truth is that God will accomplish what God has set out to do, so shouldn’t we be grateful that he is using us to that end? Don’t sit on the sidelines if God is calling you to shake up your status quo. Things will change, but remember you are playing on the winning team.

Re: Verse reading–Esther 4:4-17; 7:1-6 (day one)

“Who knows whether you have attained royalty for such a time as this?”–4:14

“To whom much is given, much is required”, said Jesus one day to His disciples. (Luke 12:48).  God’s sliding scale for judgement.  Those who have much information will be judged by a higher standard than those with less privilege.  Only fair.

Every blessing is also an obligation.  We love BECAUSE we have been loved.  (1 John 4:19).  Not even a choice.  A moral responsibility.

Sometimes, we conquer one kind of fear by focusing on a greater fear– of failing God, of being an ungrateful, spoiled child who always receives but never grows up to give back.

Mordecai’s words to Esther and Jesus’ words to us have a similar thread.  God’s gifts are not given to us so that we can “play it safe”.  His gifts prepare our hearts so that we will be ready for the risks that are involved in giving back!