When Faith Smothers Fear

Rumors fly by like nasty bugs unswattable on a hot summers eve.

And the naysayers keep forcing their self-promoting ways, like bullfrogs croaking loudly before sleep.

And people are fleeing.
                             Walking away from homes.
                                                                 And families.
                                                                             And hope. 
                                                                                             ….Everything they have worked for, for years.
And it rises in many around…..

Dreaded fear. 

Like Chinese Torture….it comes closer….
                                                       Continually dripping…..
                                                                                       in peoples ears….

Until they season it, taste it…..

Become one with its uncertainties.

And I see it happening….

Fear spreading like the plague. 
                                                      Like hay fever in May.
                                                                                     Congesting. Stifling. Blocking the flow of grace.
Yet, experience teaches….

Though men and women who have tasted grace, still seem to be sinking in quicksands of pain. 

And I wonder…..

Could it be what they are holding to is not God….but faith in faith?

The faith that thinks that if we think positive…..
                                                   Are strong enough.  
                                                                           Or just confess repeatedly, long enough….
                                                                                                   We have the power to make things happen.

Faith misplaced…..Faith in people. Or things.  Or achievements. Faith in us.

 
And I have seen it. This false faith……buckle under pressure…..struggles….time and time again. 

And I too have been guilty of misguided, selfish trust….based not on God….but some attribute in us.

Yet, time has taught.  Time always teaches….

There is no power….
                             No hope…
                                               No salvation….
                                                                       No strength…..Apart from Him.

And I try to explain…

We know the Author and His pen, as He writes history……In Him we can trust.

Yet, fear has a power all it’s own…..Defensive.  Protective.  Prideful.  Predictive.

It’s what led Jonah to the whale.  
                                              Saul to not wait for Samuel’s call.  
                                                                                       Goliath to prevail…..
                                                                                                             before David killed him at God’s call.

And a little boy seemed to have more wisdom than us all….knowing…
 

And yet His Word insists…. 

“Greater is He that is in us than He that is in this world!”


For, If God is for us….who can be against us?


Greater are those that are with us….than those with them!


And while webs encroach….imposing fears grip…..God’s will valiantly prevails.

May His Word loosen chains.

Shackles….always easy to get on….but hard to get off.


Bonds only cut by the power of His love from His work on the cross. 

For, isn’t it true?   His ways bring everlasting  peace….not chaos.  
                                                                              Surety….not doubt.  
                                                                                           Power and a sound mind….not anxiety and clout.

So….let it rain.  

Rain down hope…..like showers in the south. 

And let Christ’s perfect healing erase every doubt.

Eradicate all shouts.

Satisfy the thirstiest of mouths….

And let faith arise…..as we rest on His wings

….in the early morn…..

Not in fear…..

But, above the storm…..

In His perfect peace.

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