UCAN CG shar. : Misplaced Mistrust Scripture: Lk 12:4-7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. Ps 111:10 Main Idea(objective): Mistrust is a form of fear and when we fear we are not in God’s love. At these times it is easy to forget who God is and place your trust in something that is not able to deliver you. Fear has this ability to both stop us and make us react at the same time. God wants us to understand He is above all things, even death so it is He we need to trust and fear not anything or one else. The Issue: Moments of uncertainty and insecurity whether it be for our physical bodies or an aspect of our lives can send us running for help. Most of us have had these experiences when we felt so vulnerable and weak we simply wanted to get out of that situation and find security. Probably the most stimulating of these kinds of experiences is when our lives are threatened. It is at this time we see what we really trust in. As Christians we are given grace to become God’s children which means God the Father is always there for us. Yet when we look at the world it is easy to misplace our trust with mistrust and run to something other than God. Life has always been unstable. We may not realize it on a day to day basis but at any moment our apparently stable lives can turn upside down. Problems come and disasters and death happen. So life can take a turn for the worst at anytime. Where then is a person to find security? How do we not give in to fear and begin mistrusting and fearing everyone and thing? Realizing that mistrust is a form of fear and that it happens after a bad experience it is easy to see why Christians would respond to life like everyone else, fear. When we fear though we let go of God’s grace and begin to look for answers elsewhere. Why? We doubt. Fear and mistrust have a way of worming their way in to our minds. We begin to think things that might be and what if’s so that we lose our peace. Our minds race to find answers to seemly impossible situations. Relying on what we think we look around to find answers and this creates trouble. No human can know all things or have all power so we can’t rely on ourselves so we fear more anything that threatens us. Lastly when we mistrust and fear we empower our defeated foe, Satan. He has no power until we fear then we give him power. Mistrust is a form of fear so when we mistrust God we open ourselves up for our flesh and Satan to influence us and it will not go well. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 Jn 4:18 Stop, think and pray: make a list of all the things we mistrust and fear. Ask yourself how often do you experience fear? How do you respond? Pray that God will give you victory over all your fears and replace your mistrust with confidence. The Discussion: read Lk 12:4-7 This passage uses some pretty strong language to get the message across. God tells us clearly not to fear anything or anyone because only He has the power over our eternal spirits. The emphasis is trust God because he is above all things but also note that even as he is almighty he is for us. Many things will come against us as Christians but God is telling us not to fear even one thing because he is with us. Note the following points: 1. All other things that come against us are limited: “and can do no more.” Even Satan is limited. He is created and doesn’t know everything or isn’t everywhere. So if Satan is such why do we fear man? Because we don’t see and keep our eye on God. If we really knew how great is God we would never fear. God is not so concerned with our physical bodies as we are. We obsess over them but in the end we all die and the body turns to dust. Only God can raise them again and give us new ones so why do we worry so much about these bodies? 2. God wants us to know his power and authority: God points to the truth about himself so that we can walk in it. If we fear that which can’t really harm us we live in bondage to a lie. But God wants us to walk free and live in joy so He shows us who is really in control, He. 3. God heart is all about the eternal: God’s point here is that life is more than just our physical bodies and that we should learn to think like he does. Christians often forget that we are called to live as travelers here and not store up treasures here. If we do it tends to take our heart away from God and our focus away from what matters most. This is why we see many people joining the Prosperity doctrine. They want to be rich here but God is not about that. Lastly all this is about fearing for whatever but when we understand that God is far greater than anything and is totally in control and that he out of love wants us to experience eternity with him we can begin to learn how to walk fearlessly. God shows us here that he knows us intimately. He knows how many hairs are on your head and mine. This means he has taken time and energy to know all about you. Why? He loves you so much. We are precious to Him and this means that when bad things happen we can be certain He is for us and trust him no matter how things look. We need not look anywhere else for security or wisdom or life but God himself. He delights in being our heavenly Father so let us learn to walk in faith. Note: Recently a friend of ours got mugged (attacked physically for their things). When these things happen fear naturally flows out of our hearts. But I have heard of testimonies of Christians who because they trusted God totally and chose to believe, fear did not conquer them but rather they overcame fear with love (Rom. 12:21). What an amazing picture this paints that in times of mistrust we chose to be loving and forgiving because we have a God who was such to us and we know it and live it. Sadly far too many Christians don’t live this kind of power because they don’t walk in God’s love. There is only one source of love that is greater than all the evil in the whole world, God. Simply put if a person doesn’t know God intimately they will never have the love flowing from them so they will most likely respond with fear and mistrust and be overcome by the world. I invite you if you are reading this to ask God to help you learn to walk in his love all the time. If God who is magnificently beautiful and beyond words can love and give to us can’t we believe and walk with him to gain this love by loving him? Note this has nothing to do with religion or what we bring to it but rather it is how much we chose to response to God’s act of great love through his Son Jesus. The choice is yours always but as for me as long as I live this will be my goal.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 07:25:24 +0000
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