How are you?  Over the past few weeks, we have been considering this simple question with a complex answer.  Using the example of God’s ministry to his prophet Elijah in I Kings 19, we have already considered how God helps us maintain our physical and spiritual tanks.  Today, we are focusing on our emotional tank.  For many of us, this may be the tank that is the most unpredictable and difficult to maintain.  We seem to deal with unexpected changes in our emotional state that for many of us defy explanation.  Why do I feel blue today and ecstatic tomorrow?  The answer is complicated and involves physiological, environmental and even spiritual considerations.  I need to take this opportunity to say that I do not believe there are any quick fixes or easy answers to many of the challenges we face maintaining our emotional tank.  I realize many strong and faithful Christians struggle with their emotional state.  I do not want to trivialize their challenge.  However, I do believe God cares about our emotional state and I believe he has answers for many of our emotional challenges.  I think the example of Elijah in this passage is a perfect illustration of the complexity and challenges of our emotional tank and God’s response to those challenges.  Even after God has personally ministered to Elijah and filled his physical and spiritual tank, notice how Elijah feels in I Kings 19:14 when God asks him why he is holed up in a cave:

He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 

If you could ask Elijah at this moment, “How are you?” he would likely respond, “alone and afraid.”  Even though God had enabled Elijah to enjoy a miraculous victory over the 450 prophets of Baal, the experience had emptied his tanks and Elijah turned tail and ran from the Queen’s death sentence.  Even after God personally tended to Elijah, providing him with nourishment and a powerful example of God’s power and presence, Elijah feels alone and afraid.  Elijah believes he is the only faithful servant left in the world and he seems to believe his mission is over.  Notice how God responds to Elijah in I Kings 19:15-18:

And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.  And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.  And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death.  Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

First, God gives Elijah specific instructions that continue his mission and alleviate his fear.  He has marching orders from God and now the future is less cloudy than before.  Uncertainty is a common source of fear for many of us.  When we don’t have any idea of what the future may hold and times are tough, we can get apprehensive and fearful.  Although we can never know for sure what even the next moment may hold for us, we can gain comfort from knowing God is in control and we are part of his plan.  God reminds Elijah that he is part of God’s plan and God’s instructions demonstrate that God is in control.

Notice that God’s instructions communicate to Elijah that God will continue his mission through others.  Although God has worked miraculously through Elijah, he will also work in more subtle ways through political leaders.  Kings Hazael and Jehu will have a divine responsibility to continue to eliminate the prophets of Baal.  God also tells Elijah that he knows Elijah is close to retirement.  His instructions include the selection of Elijah’s replacement, Elisha. 

With these instructions, God reminds Elijah the future is secure because God is in control and he lets Elijah know he is not alone.  Elijah is joined in God’s mission by Jehu, Hazael and Elisha.  For good measure, God lets Elijah know there are at least 7,000 faithful servants left in the world that are also part of God’s mission.  God lets Elijah know for certain he is not alone and he has no reason to fear and so Elijah is able to return north in confidence with three full tanks.

I believe God has similar therapy for us when we feel alone and afraid.  First, we should always remember that God is in control and we are part of his divine plan.  He has equipped us for life and given us his power to obtain victory in this life.  Because of this promise, we can live without fear even though we do not know what the future holds in this life.  We are confident of what the future holds beyond this life!

Second, we should always remember that we are never alone.  We have each other in the church and that is a powerful gift from God to combat our loneliness.  However, even when church family fellowship fails us (and it will from time-to-time) and we feel alone in this world, remember God is with us.  We have fellowship with him and through Jesus Christ we are able to participate in his divine nature.  Since he is for us, who can be against us?  Meditate on that and let your emotional tank be filled.

I leave you with this powerful reminder from II Peter 1:3-4:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.  

Next week, an offering of thanksgiving!

Until next week,

Meet me at the intersection!

Have you ever felt defeated by fear and anxiety, unable to find the strength to take the next step?  I think when you look at the disciples of Jesus who in Luke chapter 24 were gathered together after his crucifixion, you see a group of people who were paralyzed by their fear and doubt concerning their future.  Their individual and collective expectations of the coming Messianic Kingdom had been dashed on the cross and with the Messiah’s body lying in a tomb they simply did not know what to do next.  Even the reports of the empty tomb from Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James seemed only to compound their confusion and anxiety.  In response to their fear, Jesus gave them the gift of his physical presence, reminded them of the testimony of the scriptures and he demonstrated his power over death which is the ultimate display of strength and power.  I believe Jesus gives us these same gifts to confront fear and uncertainty as I’ve written in the last three installments of Do Not Fear. 

However, I’ve saved the best gift for last.  As Jesus was saying his earthly “good-byes” to his disciples, he repeated a promise he had made many times before.  There was a helper coming that would give them (and us) the strength needed to keep the faith in times of trial and persecution.

“And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49

Jesus had been preparing his disciples for his death and his return to heaven for months prior to his crucifixion in order that they would know what to expect and so they would respond to the events of his death, resurrection and ascension with faith and not with fear.

“And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.”  John 14:29

It is in this same chapter in John where Jesus promises that God would send his Spirit fully to strengthen his disciples.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:15-17

I know we gain strength from God’s Spirit because the apostle Peter encourages us to use our gifts with the strength that God supplies and the apostle Paul identifies the source of that strength.

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” I Peter 4:10-11

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:9-11

As Christians, we enjoy the same promise of God’s Spirit as those disciples who were are gathered together in their fear and doubt.  Just as they were strengthened for their walk of faith by God’s Spirit, we are also given strength for our walk of faith.  The key to receiving his strength against fear comes from understanding how God empowers us through his Spirit to defeat fear and anxiety in our lives.

I believe most of the fear in our lives comes from apprehension about what the future holds.  I am not afraid of the past which is set in stone and cannot harm me in the present.  Most often my fear comes from not knowing what the future holds and further from obsessing over all the many possible negative things that could happen as my imagination runs wild thinking of all the various ways things could go wrong.  This pattern of thinking is very unhealthy and totally unproductive since we have no control over the events of the future.  God gives us the gift of perspective by assuring us of our eventual place with him in heaven, but while here on earth, we have no assurance that things will not go wrong in the future.  The way for us to defeat fear in our lives is by focusing on using the strength that God supplies to deal with the troubles of the present and wait upon the Lord to help us deal with whatever troubles the future may bring.  I believe God promises to give us the strength to deal with today’s troubles.  However, he does not promise to give us the strength to deal with all the various imagined challenges of the future.  We live in the present – only God lives in the future.  We can defeat fear through the Spirit by living in the present and dealing with the challenges of the present.

Jesus expresses this idea in Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

How can you defeat fear and uncertainty in your life?  Only through the strength that God supplies!  Rest in the assurance that God through his Spirit will supply you with the strength you need for this day. 

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
   and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
   and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
   they shall walk and not faint.
                                Isaiah 40:28-31

Until next week,

Meet me at the intersection!

Over the past two weeks, we have focused on how Jesus helps us conquer fear and doubt by demonstrating his power through the miracles and by providing us with his Word.  Although we should be inspired to confidence by observing God’s power in the miracles and in nature and through meditating on his word, we still sometimes experience fear and doubt.   I believe Jesus knew there would be times when we would need his personal and intimate reassurance that we can defeat fear in our lives.  For those times when you are filled with doubt and anxiety, Jesus has provided a way to personally comfort and reassure you.

For some folks, there is just no substitute for first-hand experience.  Missouri is called the “Show me” state in reference to the legendary skepticism of the state’s citizens.  Many of us are from the spiritual state of Missouri.  Does God have an answer for that type of doubter?  What if you just have to see it or feel it to believe it?  I think you probably know that Jesus had an answer for the Missouri-type folks on the day of his resurrection.  Would it surprise you to know he has the same answer for us today?

Look at the story from Luke 24:33-39.  The two men from Emmaus ran back to Jerusalem to report their encounter with Jesus and…

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

You have to go to John’s gospel to see this same scene play out a second time for the benefit of Thomas.  We label this apostle, “Doubting Thomas” singling him out for his doubt and yet he was not the only one paralyzed by unbelief.  Fear and doubt was universal among these disciples.

Have you noticed a trend yet among these stories?  John and his disciples are alone in prison; the two disciples are alone on the road to Emmaus; the disciples are alone in their room and Thomas is apparently off alone separate from them.  In each case, the cure for their fears and doubt came from leaving their solitude and making contact with Jesus Christ.

Have you ever felt isolated and disconnected from Jesus Christ feeling like you were an island in a spiritual ocean?  Have you ever felt like things would just be better if somehow your savior could just wrap his arms around you and hold you tight?  When we struggle with uncertainty and doubt we need to receive his personal attention, witness the power of his works and feel his healing touch. 

But can we touch physically his body today?  Absolutely!  The church is the body of Christ and when we are alone in our doubts, we need to touch his body through fellowship with one another.  We need to receive his personal touch through the ministering hands and hugs of our brothers and sisters.  We need to witness his power as emotional wounds are healed, physical needs are met and spiritual hunger is fed.  When we are anxious, paralyzed with fear, overshadowed by clouds of doubt and crippled by pain we need the healing touch of Christ in our lives.  Brothers and sisters, that work must happen within our church families!  We must be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to those in need especially those of the household of faith.  We must be willing to give and we must be willing to receive.  The fellowship of the body is one of our most powerful defenses against fear and uncertainty.

It is my profound hope that you are an active part of a church family that is able to minister to you when you are in need.  Through his body on earth you can also bless others when they are in need.  Paul instructs us in Galatians 6:2 to bear one another’s burdens and in order to make sure that happens, Jesus provided us with the blessing of his church.  If you are not receiving the blessing of Christian fellowship he has provided for you, please seek out a church home and be comforted and strengthened.  You are not meant to bear your burdens alone!

Next week, in the final installment of Do Not Fear, we will discuss the most powerful gift Jesus has given us for combating fear and uncertainty in our lives.  Jesus reminds his disciples of this powerful gift in the last part of Luke 24 just before he leaves them for heaven.   

Until next week,

Meet me at the intersection!