Message of the Month

                                                      12/1/09

History will call this age the Age of Anxiety. Actually we have less to worry about than most of the earlier generations. For most of us our daily lives are easier than it has ever been before throughout history. As Christians in America we have less persecution. Sure people criticize us and hate us, but actual persecution is practically non-existent. If we look at earlier times we see that Paul was stoned, beaten, imprisoned, and finally executed. Peter was crucified upside down. Stephen was stoned to death. As we move through history, we find that Luther, Calvin, and the early Bible translators were imprisoned, exiled, and some even killed for the gospel’s sake. Today in many areas of the world Christians are persecuted, some are killed, and churches are bombed. We, in America, don’t really understand what persecution is all about. Yet we are destroying ourselves.

We are in conflict with our own being. Our chief concern has become the temporal. We have come to believe that if we have food, clothing, education, shelter and recreation we will have found utopia. Our government, schools, media, and society support this belief. We have been convinced that we must have separation of church and state. This has evolved to a higher level of separation. It has become separation of God and state. All areas of our public life now must be devoid of God. Our schools also fight the belief in a spiritual realm. They teach evolution as fact. They teach reason as the only way to truth. They teach that you are your own authority, sex has no morality, and values are an individual decision. Television teaches that man’s greatest problem is a five o’clock shadow, yellow teeth, bad breath, or body odor. The total emphasis is on the body and making it comfortable. We have become more concerned with the journey than with the destination.

Christians have also fallen into this spiritual trap. We have lost touch with reality. Today anxiety is not directed toward real valid concerns such as eternity, morality and sin. These concerns are passed off by society as obsolete or just a scare tactic to keep you in line. They are thought of as archaic. Society today manufactures its own anxieties: things like what we wear, how we look, what others will think, and do we measure up. This generation is dying, not from outside forces but from internal combustion. We cringe not from the judgment of God but from the judgment of society. We have fled into our ivory tower and have surrounded ourselves with gadgets, luxuries, and false security. We concentrate on the “quality of life” rather that the true meaning of life. We hide from reality, conscience, and God. External luxury is a cheap substitute for spiritual growth and peace with God. Anxiety is the result of putting our hope in anything but God.

What is anxiety? Webster defines it as a fearful concern or interest. Anxiety is a by-product of fear. What is fear? For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2Timothy 1:7) Paul writing to Timothy tells him that fear is a spirit. But he says God does not send this spirit. Spirits only come from two places: from God or from Satan. If the spirit of fear doesn’t come from God, then it must come from Satan. Fear can have devastating results even on Christians. Fear can kill both physically and spiritually. It freezes people into inaction and can debilitate them. If Satan can debilitate a Christian, he has won.

Christians have come to fear many things. Some fear world events, terrorism, the war, and the future. Others fear accidents, injury, sickness, or death for themselves or their loved ones. Some are overcome by fear of a job loss or their economic security. Many blame God for drought, famine, flooding, plane crashes, and other disasters. But when you study the chain of events that led to each disaster, you usually find that man has caused it in some way. God has not promised that we will not have trials, but He has promised that He will be there to see us through them. When Mount St. Helens erupted and killed 57 people, I heard the question, “Why did God allow it to happen?” God warned people for months with earthquakes. God had the authorities warn the people. Those killed ignored the warnings. Some schemed on how to get around the red zone. And then when life was lost, God was blamed.

Many are fearful of the events in the Middle East. God has warned us in His word of these events in the last days. Jesus in Luke 21:28 describes what is happening today. He then tells us to look up for our redemption draws near. While we can be concerned, as Christians we should be looking with anticipation for the return of Jesus Christ.

What should a fearful Christian do? We need to be prepared, not scared. We must anchor to something infallible. The first thing we need to do is to seek God. I sought the Lord and He delivered me from fear. (Psalm 34:4) David found himself full of fear. His response was not to hide, but instead to seek the help of God. He knew that fear was not from God, and he would be delivered. In this day and age we tend to seek help, but it usually is from incomplete sources. We tend to turn to psychology or to friends to talk it out. While this may help for a short period of time, we really must turn to God for a permanent solution to fear and anxiety. Fear is a spirit but a spirit that is not from God. Like David, we must seek God to find relief. We, as Christians, tend to spend one hour Sunday morning with God. We don’t really seek God. We make ourselves available sometimes, and hope God will find us. When you seek anything you look diligently everywhere it may be found. We need to do more than make ourselves available for God to help us one hour Sunday morning.

We need to read God’s word daily. We will find God in His word if we are diligent in studying it. We must set up a daily routine that includes a certain amount to be read. It helps greatly to find a Bible reading program to follow. Read it expecting to hear from God.

We must seek God in prayer. It often works best to use short, frequent, focused prayers. As we feel the fear building up, just a short prayer to God will help. This can be done as we are driving, as we are on our daily walk, as we are doing anything. Make the prayer one sentence to God specifically addressing the fear. We will soon find that we are talking to God all day long, and He will respond. The prayer may not only be a request for God but also can be a praise for something good that has happened or that we have thought of. As we praise God for little things that happen, we begin to focus on the good.

We can also seek God in the music that we listen to. Music seems to bypass the intellect and go directly to the soul. We don’t even have to be concentrating on the music, when the next thing we know, we are humming or singing the song.

We should also seek God at church. Too often we go to church out of habit and not expecting. We need to go to church expecting to hear from God not only in the preaching but also in the worship songs and in the visiting with others.

First, we need to seek God. Second, we need to listen to God. Whosoever listens to Me shall be delivered from fear (Proverbs 1:33) God tells us in His word that if we listen to Him, He will wipe away all our fears. You may say that God never speaks to you, but He speaks to His children continually. The problem is that many Christians don’t listen or are so unfamiliar with God that they don’t recognize His voice. You only begin to recognize a friend’s voice after you have spent a lot of time with them. It is the same with God. If He is a stranger, you will not recognize when He speaks to you. God speaks to us in a small still voice, in our thoughts, in our feelings, and in our urgings, but if we don’t really know God, we will not recognize Him speaking and will turn it away.

Anything that God says will reflect His written word. You may not understand how reading the Bible will help if you don’t understand a lot of it. You don’t understand how medicine helps either but it does. I’ve heard it said that God’s word must be hatched. You must meditate on it. You do this by prayerfully looking at each verse through the eyes of your own life to see if it speaks to anything you are going through at that time. You will find that God’s word changes from logos, a general word, to rhema, a specific word to you.

First, we must seek God. Second, we must listen to God. Third, we must submit to God. Many know the scripture that says, “ Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” You resist, and he doesn’t flee. You resist again, and again he doesn’t flee. What possibly could be wrong? You pray and again resist with the same results. Why? Let’s look at the scripture. We find it in (James 4:7) Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. It says to submit to God first before you resist. That is the key. You must submit to God, and then Satan and his spirit of fear will depart from you.

How do you submit to God? Many try to be good. Many try to do good works. Many false doctrines are built upon this, but Christ was very plain about this. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) You can’t earn salvation or find any other way to salvation. You must come through Jesus Christ. You must accept Him as your personal Savior. Then as you read His word and He begins to speak to you, you must submit to that word. The overriding goal of God is found in (Romans 8:29) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. What is God’s purpose for you? It is for you to be changed into the image of His Son and to have the same spirit that Christ did. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to aid us in that.

What should a fearful Christian do? First, he must seek God. Second, he must listen to God. Third, he must submit to God. Fourth, he must stop compromising. “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth.” (Rev. 3:15-16) The fastest way to become lukewarm is to start compromising with the world. Compromise is Satan’s greatest weapon against the Christian. Satan knows that he can’t take you out of God’s hand, so he tries to neutralize you by making you useless to the Kingdom of God. Fear of man causes compromise. We give in and call it tolerance. We no longer take a stand for what God’s word says is right. We become politically correct. Today we are under pressure to be tolerant of all kinds of sin, and we must not believe that there is only one right way to God. If we do, we are labeled a right-wing bigot. God’s word makes it very clear that there is only one way. We must not compromise our beliefs and values in the face of society’s criticism, or we will become a prime candidate for being neutralized by Satan and to receive his spirit of fear.

How do we overcome fear? First, seek God in His word and hatch it with prayer. Second, we must listen to God. Expect Him to speak to us, and know His voice. Third, we must submit to God. Conform to the image of Christ, and watch our faith grow. Fourth, we must not compromise with the world. We must take a stand and dare to be different. Then and only then can we have the peace that passes all understanding.

There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9) Do you have peace? Do you have that rest? Do you have that assurance that God is with you? If not, search your life right now. Have you truly accepted the death of Jesus Christ in your place to pay for your sins, or are you trying to earn your way. If you have accepted Christ, are your priorities right? Is God first, or is your career, money, family or something else in first place. Are you a self-sustaining or a God-sustaining Christian? Make God first in your life, seek Him, listen to Him, submit to Him, don’t compromise and you will enter into that rest.