There are lots of reasons in everyone's life to be stressed or afraid. The reasons for stress and anxiety or fear can vary, but are usually pretty universal. Job stress, lack of a job, money, children, the inability to have children, weather events such as tornadoes, earthquakes, mud slides, floods, hurricanes, violent crime, identity theft, the threat of war, civil unrest, medical issues...the list goes on.
Even followers of Jesus get stressed and fearful. Life is not easy for anyone. Every last person on this planet has something they are dealing with. Rich, poor, middle class, fill in the blank race, it doesn't matter. When it rains, everybody gets wet (Matthew 5:43-45 and John 16:32-33).
If we, as believers in and followers of Christ Jesus, could just take a step back, take a breath and open our bibles, we will see that there is no reason to be afraid. Jesus tells us many times that we should not be afraid. He has our lives hidden with Himself in God (Colossians 3:3).
I would challenge everyone who is a believer to read through the bible and try to count how many times we are told not to be afraid. The references are too many to list here.
Jesus promises us a peace that is beyond understanding (Philippians 4:4-7). In The Revelation, John gives the most encouraging news of all when he reports all that he has witnessed. In Revelation 1:1-6, emphasis on verses 4 and 5, we are told that grace and peace are imparted to us by our Triune God.
We are the children of the Most High. We are heirs of God (Romans 8:16-17 - I recommend starting from verse 1 for context). We have no reason to be afraid of anything. We have been given life eternal in Christ Jesus. We have been given the right to be called children of God(John 1:1-13) and have even been invited to call our God 'Abba' (Daddy)(Romans 8:15).
Praise to our great God in Christ Jesus that we can go through anything with peace and joy in our hearts because an eternity with Him is the inheritance we are coming into.
God is AWESOME!
2 comments:
Amen Little Brother, Thank you needed to hear that.
Excellent post. We are constantly tempted to despair over all our many situations.Thank you .
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