Fearless

Margot Woelk was one of Adolph Hitler’s food tasters.  Her job was to sample the foods of the German Nazi leader before he ate them to ensure they were not poisoned.  For nearly three years,Margot ate the most delicious foods known to man.  In her later years, feeling convicted about her service to the Nazi leader, she decided to speak about her horrid experience.  She said, “The food I ate was the most delicious I have ever eaten in my life.  It was only the best vegetables, asparagus, bell peppers, rice, pastas, and about everything you can imagine. The only problem was I could never enjoy it.  For nearly three years I lived in constant fear surrounded by the best the world had to offer.  My job was to eat the best foods that could have been poisoned.  Every day I ate and never enjoyed the food because I feared that meal was going to be my last.”

What do you fear?  People are paralyzed every day by constant fear.  Fear of death, sickness, people, rejection, intimacy, failure and many more rob from people every day.  2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  Fear is not from God but from Satan.  What are you afraid of?  Fear is a paralyzing spirit.  It will keep you from fulfilling God’s calling on your life.  Satan uses fear to terrorize you.  1 John 4:18 says, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.”  God is love and drives fear away.  The Amplified Bible says in 1 John 4:18, “full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror!”  If you are being tormented and are terrified of the fear that is robbing your life then you need to trust in the Lord to remove fear and replace it with His perfect love.

Fear comes to us all in various forms.  My kids were once, and are sometimes still, scared of the dark.  What helped them?  Light!  When Satan throws the dark fears of this world at you, counter it with the light of Christ.  His Word!  Do what David did in Psalm 56:3.  He said, “When I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You.”  So when Satan berates you with the fear of loneliness you come back at him with, “God will never leave me or forsake me” (Hebrews 13:5).  When he tries to scare you with the fear of death, remind him, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54).  When the fear of lack comes on you, just recall, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).  Whatever phobia you may have, Scripture has an antidote.  

There are many storms in life that are seemingly scary.  Sometimes God calms the storm.  Sometimes the storm rages on and God calms the person.  God can calm you in the roughest of storms.  Fear doesn’t have to captivate you any longer.  God has made you to have faith, not fear.  Worry, anxiety, and doubt are minions of fear.  Don’t bow down to them but have faith and confidence in the Lord.  Isaiah 41:10 reminds us to, “Fear not, for I am with you.  Be not dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, I will help you, and I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”  I encourage you today to face your fear and don’t run from it or hide in it.  Remember that Jesus is with you.  Don’t be paralyzed by fear but go forward in faith.  If God is for you, who (or what) can be against you (Romans 8:31)!  

When Your Dreams are Delayed

Remember the first time you were excited about a dream for your life?  I mean you could see it and you were pumped!  It was what you lived for, what made you get up in the morning.  The last part of Proverbs 13:12 tells us, “A dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”  It is a high like none other to see your dreams fulfilled.  But what if the dream doesn’t seem like it is ever going to be fulfilled?  What if the dream is delayed?  What if you have lost hope in the dream?  The first part of Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”  Perhaps you’ve hoped, planned, prayed, and sacrificed but the dream still eludes you.  What do you do when your dreams are delayed?

First you must ask yourself if your dreams are God’s dreams for you.  Is what you are spending your time, talents, treasure, and life on God’s plan for your life?  Scripture reminds us that God knows the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11-12).  His plans are perfect and He wants to give you a great future and hope.  He never promised us it would be easy or without problems though.  In fact, He said we would have trouble in this world.  The good news is that He has overcome the world so we should be of good cheer (John 16:33).  If you are a Christian you must remember that everyone born of God overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).  We don’t overcome because of some special fairy dust He sprinkles on us when we are saved.  We overcome because of the previous verse - we keep His commands (1 John 5:3).  If you aren’t keeping God’s commands then don’t expect God to bless your plans because they probably aren’t His plans.  You can’t just ask God to bless your plans – you must find out His plans and follow them.  Then you will be blessed.

Abraham’s dreams were delayed.  At age 75 God told him he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5).  God changed His name from Abram to Abraham which means “father of many nations.”  Can you see it?  Imagine someone coming up to him at age 99 and saying, “What is your name?”  “Abraham, the father of many nations,” he exclaims.  “Wonderful,” they would reply.  “How many kids do you have?”  “None...yet”.  How many of you would have given up on that dream a long time ago.  Abraham was 100 when he had Isaac, which means “laughter”.   It means laughter because I’m sure they laughed at God about having kids at that age.  If God said you were having a kid at age 100 I’m sure you’d cry, not laugh.  But God delivered the dream in His timing.  Abraham didn’t give up on the dream even when it was delayed.  Romans 4:17 tells us concerning Abraham that God was able to give life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.  Abraham believed in hope and faith (v. 18).  His body was old and as good as dead and Sarah’s womb was also dead (v. 19) but God he didn’t waver in unbelief and strengthened his faith believing God would do what He said He would do.

Even when God asked Abraham to sacrifice His only son Isaac – the one through whom the dream would be fulfilled, Abraham believed and trusted God.  He even said they both would come back (Genesis 22).  Abraham knew that even if killed his son – the dream – God would resurrect him (Hebrews 11:19 says this).  Don’t give up on God’s dream for you even if it looks dead.  God can resurrect dead bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14).  Those bones may have been dead but they weren’t buried.  Don’t give up on the dream God’s put in your heart.  Remember He can even resurrect dead and buried things but only because it will give Him glory and fulfill His will.  Wait on God and love and serve Him with all your heart – that’s the real dream fulfilled. 

Jesus Is The Miracle Worker

This morning I was praying for two miracles - a man who has stage 4 cancer and another lady who is having stoke-like symptoms and can't move her right side.  Some say Jesus doesn't do miracles anymore.  I would wholeheartedly disagree!  In seminary I was taught a principle of "first mention".  This meant if something was controversial in scripture, go back to the first mention of it in scripture.  No doubt Jesus did many miracles.  His first was turning water into wine at a wedding in John 2.  What is so significant about this?  Anyone ever had or seen something go bad at a wedding?  It is supposed to be the perfect day of a bride's life.  No one is more upset when something doesn't work out than the bride - well, maybe her mom.  So much hard work and effort.  So much time and money spent. 

Isn't that true about us when something goes wrong in our lives?  Everything was going so right and then BOOM!  Cancer, stroke, financial ruin, death, etc.  We are in desperate need of a miracle. Jesus still works miracles.  In the middle of your need for Jesus to move, what if He asks you to do something?   Me?  I thought HE was supposed to do it?  Of course Jesus is the only healer and miracle worker, but He wants our faith.  In this story of water being turned to wine, Jesus asked them to go and get large vessels to hold water.  What?  Just make it rain wine Jesus!  Just make it appear in our glasses again. Remember what Jesus' mother told them? (John 2:5) “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.'"  Be ready in the middle of your need to do whatever Jesus tells you to do.  Why?  A miracle isn't far behind.

Remember these words.  (Isaiah 55:8-9 LB) “This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours.”  You must focus on what Jesus wants to do in you.  Stop focusing on the problem at hand and focus on what God wants to do overall in and through the miracle at hand.  1 Peter 1:6-7 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  Trials will come, but so will greater faith, spiritual growth, and a huge blessing in the miracle.

You must believe the unbelievable.  When the world tells you its impossible you must remember Mark 10:27, "Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”  Jesus is still in the business of doing miracles.  It doesn't matter how many miracles you hear about or see sometimes though.  The one you need now isn't the one you read about long ago or hear about in a distant land.  The one you need is yours.  Jesus will do a miracle in you!

You must also expect the best to happen.  In John 2:10 we read, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”  Jesus is still saving the best part for your life.  The latter will be greater than the former.  I'm reminded of one of my favorite scriptures in Ephesians, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Eph. 3:20).  Jesus can do more than you could ever expect or see in the natural.  It is time to believe and expect the greatest from the greatest.  Jesus is the miracle worker!