God’s promise for Week 2:
“Be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Josh 1:9 MSG)
For those who want further Scripture reading each day here are a couple of suggestions:
- Read one Psalm a day and meditate on it.
- Read a chapter or part of a chapter out of Acts or Matthew or Hebrews each day, focusing on the idea of faith.
Day 10
“Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Is. 41:10 NASB
Fear: I read once that when fear, which shows itself so often in the form of worry, is the center of my life, Jesus isn’t. I find this a very valuable measuring stick for my walk with God. When I spend more time in a day wondering how we’re going to pay our bills this month, worrying about my children, or distressing about relationships, I know that I need to spend more time with the Lord. Let’s look for a moment at the Parable of the Sower (read Mark 3:1-20). Clearly, Jesus lays out three categories of people. Today, let’s focus on the third category: “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life…come in, making it unfruitful" (Mark 3:18). The Message puts it this way: “The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it�?. I’d like to think that I belong in the fourth, ‘good soil’ category, but if I were really honest, I am all too often wandering around in the weeds and thorns of worry. To those reading this today who know they are too fearful, make a choice with me. When the fear comes, in one of the hundred ways it comes each day, say today’s verse, Isaiah 41:10. In these beautiful words, God not only tells us not to fear, but he gives us the reasons WHY we do not have to fear. “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God." He goes on to give us such a wonderful promise: “Certainly, without doubt, indisputably, I will help you, definitely, for sure, unquestionably, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand" (Is 41:10, emphasis and synonyms mine). We don’t have to fear. God is our God. If we believe He is who he says he is, and that his word is true, then we must choose not to fear. The worry will come—it always does, but when it does, we don’t have to let it cripple us. Instead, let’s remind ourselves that God promises to take care of us and refuse to let the “cares of this world�? stand between us and total trust in our God.
Prayer:
Please God, help me to be good soil for your words to fall onto. Help me not to let the cares of this world become weeds that choke out your voice. Amen.
Reading further on this topic: 2 Tim1:7; 1 John 4:18; Rom 8:15
In Faith:
“Remember to pray for your hopeless cases"!
