Live in faith, not fear
In today’s current social climate and in like years past, there is great concern, in some cases panic, over the direction of our country and health scares. We can’t let fear or misplaced faith rule the day or our future.
God has not given us a spirit of fear says 2 Timothy 1:7 but of power, love and discipline, a sound mind. Which means that God’s intentions for us are to have a resilient approach towards all that happens. With so much alarmism and bad news across the media spectrum, it drives people to anxiety and apprehension. Consequently, too many end up with disquieted lives.
Is it wrong to have car, house or life insurance if we’re to be trusting God? Is it necessary to put a seat belt on when traveling if God is in control? Would you walk down a dark alley in a crime-infested area since God watches over you? Should we quit practicing good hygiene and sanitizing efforts due to God being faithful?
Folks who have an exceptional fear of something are said to have a phobia. What are you afraid of? What alarms or distresses you? Not having enough food to eat? Being poor? Ending up with bad health issues? Getting poor grades after studying so hard? Spiders, snakes, dogs, confrontation?
Both Luke 4:10-12 and Matthew 4:6-7 contains the account of Jesus in which the Devil tries to get Jesus to throw himself off a high point of the temple because God would protect him if he would. Jesus’ response to him was to “not to put the Lord to a foolish test.”
How do we refrain from putting the Lord to a foolish test? How many times do we purposely do foolish things that we intuitively know that are imminently unhealthy, or unnecessarily risky for our safety and wellbeing? Can we count the occasions that we have performed stupid acts that put our lives and future in jeopardy? When we impulsively move ourselves into harms way without God’s permission, that is a “foolish test,” because it devolves into abusing the Grace of God.
Of course, God can bring good out of bad, Romans 8:28, but that doesn’t preclude the reality of how we get ourselves into precarious situations to begin with. Was it the result of our conscious machinations, the full steam ahead, damn the torpedoes approach to the end results of our damaging decisions?
Are we not to be prepared for crisis events, declines in the economy, our health or family disruptions? On one hand we are not to worry about our life, food, drink, clothing or tomorrow, Matthew 6:25-34, yet we are to emulate the ant who stores up food during opportune times and gets prepared for the winter, Proverbs 6:6-8. Where is the balance?
How about living not in any worry or panic that paralyzes, but in a faith that moves forward with prayerful expectation. We are not to live with anxiety and stress that debilitates free moral thinking, nor live as if God is our get out of jail free card for any choices and their consequent conclusions. Having a healthy concern for our wellbeing and future is responsible, and planning is wise. Being dismissive and procrastinating about real and potential downturns is irresponsible.
There is a saying along the lines of, “work like it all depends on me/us but pray like it all depends on God.” Trusting in God doesn’t mean inaction on our part. As a matter of fact, God probably wants you to act towards prevention, mitigation and recovery from ill-fated events. But he also doesn’t want us to dispassionately move without prayerful consideration.
It is not fearful to be reasonably cautious, nor a lack of faith. But It is not faith without including God. Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”