When Fear Abounds...

As if you didn't know, we are living in different times. Times are tough. Jobs are being lost daily. Stock portfolios are shrinking. House values are dropping. Fear abounds. Yet...through it all, God is in control!

A passage that has really captured my attention recently is found in Isaiah 26:3-4:

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal.

I don't know about you, but those words are very comforting to me. I need to continually be reciting this and I have been the past couple of days.

My good friend Ray Hilbert, founder of Truth At Work had some great things to say on this topic in his most recent post including the following:

Fear Grips our heart and produces 6 Effects:

Fear Replaces faith
Fear Destroys dreams
Fear steals our joy and blessing
Fear spoils victories
Fear paralyzes us
Fear robs us of memories
Fear causes us to hesitate because of disbelief

The opposite of fear is faith, trust, and belief.

Check out the rest of this excellent post here.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Calm as a Cat

This is a picture of one of our two cats, Frisco, aka "Fat Cat." Both of our cats do some crazy things that keep us laughing and they are a lot of fun. However, almost every morning they can be pretty annoying as they do a great job of waking us up so they can get fed. Thankfully, most times it is right around the time my alarm goes off which was the case this morning at 5 AM.

As I went downstairs to start my routine (feeding them, working out, quiet time with God) I was struck by how normal this morning was. The cats were acting exactly the same as they have just about every other morning. To them, they are going to have a great day with no anxiety...life is good...they are getting fed.

I thought about how different that is for many people who are waking up this morning with fear or anxiety because of the election results. I have to admit I had a little twinge of doubt in my mind as well.

However, I believe God wants us to be like my cats. Make it a great day...life is good...God is in control!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Manager of the Universe

I receive an e-magazine called Men of Integrity from Christianity Today and this article really spoke to me as I have a tendency to try to take on too much a lot of the time. I know this is an area God is working on in me. How about you?

In an earlier era, George McCauslin, a distinguished YMCA director, was serving a "Y" in western Pennsylvania that was losing membership and had financial difficulties and terrible staff problems. McCauslin found himself working 85-hour weeks and getting little sleep at night. Even when he took time off, he was fretting about the problems of this "Y." A therapist told him that he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

So McCauslin took an afternoon off, and, taking along a pen and pad of paper, went for a walk in the woods. His tight body and neck started to relax. He sat down under a tree, got out his pen and pad, and wrote God a letter. "Dear God," he wrote, "today I hereby resign as general manager of the universe. Love, George."

"And wonder of wonders," recounted McCauslin, with a twinkle in his eye, "God accepted my resignation."

This week is about turning our anxieties over to the One best equipped to handle them.