Fear Not?
Fear is a primal human emotion. It’s necessary to save our lives in some cases. For instance you are hiking and you see a rattlesnake a few feet away from you. Fear says get the heck away from that snake. In that case fear is our friend. But let's be honest, most of the time rattlesnakes are not what keeps us awake at night. It’s all those other fears, those relational, financial, family, health, and smartphone fears. Smartphone fears are a daily reality if we allow our phones to flag us down every 10 minutes and tell us how awful everything is.
A couple of days ago I began my day like I normally do. I had a cup of coffee with some scripture and prayer. I was off to a good start. But then I made the mistake of allowing myself to get distracted by my smartphone. Various media platforms were notifying me about important information that I needed to know. Apparently our country is falling apart, we are on the brink of World War 3, there is an impending strike on the East Coast that will close down our ports, drive up our food prices and kill our economy and, oh my gosh I feel my blood pressure rising! Suddenly a perfectly good day was not so perfect anymore. I’m not encouraging us to bury our head in the sand and act like everything is okay in the world. It’s not. Jesus said in this world you will have problems. But Jesus also said, be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.
The Bible tells us that at some point things are going to get crazy before the return of Christ. Aside from what's going on in the world I’ve got a lot of stuff going on in my own life that is definitely drumming up fear. Can any of you relate to that? Did you know that the Bible says, fear not, 365 times? As one person stated, there is one "fear not" for each day of the year. In first John 4:18 it says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear… I think what John was getting at is that if we understood the depth of God’s love for us there would be a lot less fear in our lives. In fact if we took to heart what Jesus says about not worrying we would all sleep better and live better. As I’m telling you this I realize I’m in a season of stressful situations. I also know that I’ve got to practice what I preach or as they say, smoke what I’m selling. There are some preventive measures we can all take to reduce the fear in our lives. “Pay attention to this Steve!”
Begin each day with prayer.
Read or listen to your audio Bible every day.
Meet regularly with your life group or some godly people for encouragement.
Go to church, you need it and the church needs you.
Exercise regularly.
Do something fun everyday, something that makes you feel alive.
Monitor the amount of time you spend on your computer or smartphone.
Be thoughtful about the music you listen to and what you watch on tv. It has more influence on your thoughts and mental health than you think.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by fear, reach out to someone, don’t isolate yourself.
Be careful and thoughtful about your diet. As they say, you are what you eat.
I hope you found this post helpful. And now for an update on Pacific Life Church. We are getting close to the opening of the auditorium. We will let you know when we have the exact date. Although we can’t wait to get back into our auditorium we want to let you know that we are going to need some extra help moving back into the auditorium. I hope you will consider volunteering to help us when we get the green light. One more important thing. Last month our giving was way down. We missed our budget by nearly $5,000. Will you please consider becoming a regular giver if you go to our church or possibly giving a special gift if God puts it on your heart. Thank you so much for supporting Pacific Life Church.
Love and Blessings,
Steve