The Fear of Failing

Most of us, in the course of our lives, feel a great fear of failure. We want to be successful, right, thought well of. But the truth of the matter is that many times that fear of failure keeps us from even trying in the first place.

  

The fear of failure is something that can cripple a person. It can keep them from trying to do something they really wanted to try; like start a business, start a relationship, or even share the Gospel. The fear of failure can also take someone to opposite extreme of putting so much into these things that it then becomes an obsession and other parts of their lives begin to suffer. But fear of failure is just that…FEAR. And John tells us that “the one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)

Then how do we deal with fear? We rest in Jesus. We rest in His peace, and we fix our minds on Him. Philippians 4:6-7 tell us that we need to pray about those things we fear, and thank God for the things He has already done and will continue to do. Then we have been promised a peace that makes the world around us think we’re off our nut (gone crazy)…because it is “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding…” That means it seems crazy to you and to the rest of the world…it doesn’t make sense.

But here is the thing about this peace…it guards your heart (that part of you that no one else knows about…that part of you that is who you really are) AND your mind (that part of you that thinks, reasons, makes choices). So your life is protected by this peace, and your thoughts are protected by this peace. Meaning? It means that you will be okay…and that, given your circumstances of fear, won’t make any sense to anyone…not even you!

So when you find yourself on the cusp of a brand new adventure and you’re feeling a bit anxious, give prayer and thanksgiving a try. Who knows? You might find the peace you’ve always been looking for.

Tell us how you have found this peace to be real in your life in the comment section below. We always love to hear from you!

Think about that today! And God bless you!

Something Completely Different

This week, I thought I’d take a break from the normal routine of how we do things here and just write about a few random thoughts that have been bouncing around in my noggin. I know that most of you are thinking right now, “There must be a lot of room in there for those thoughts to be bouncing around,” and you’d be right. But the truth of the matter is that there is nothing like having an opportunity to share some concerns, encouragements, challenges and (hopefully) blessings with all of you.

So now for something completely different!

Have you ever woken up in the morning (or evening, depending on your sleeping habits) and had someone totally random come to your mind? Perhaps you dreamed about that person and now you’re thinking about them and their face, name or whatever just will not leave your mind. I have had that happen often (again, it may be the consequence of having such an empty mind J).

What do you do when that happens? Do you laugh and just write it off as a weird coincidence? Or do you (like me) believe that there is no such thing as coincidence? Perhaps there is a reason that this person whom you haven’t thought about for ages, seemingly randomly pops into your mind. Let me share a story, and then a challenge:

There was a missionary in Africa who worked inland with a tribe of natives who were constantly at war with another tribe. When the missionary was low on supplies, he decided to go to the nearest town (a two day journey) and stock up. Those in the tribe urged him not go out because there had been threats on the tribe from their rivals and they feared that the missionary would be killed on his return trip and the supplies stolen.

The supplies were needed and so the missionary decided to put his trust in God and make the journey anyway. He made it to town without incident and bought the needed supplies. On the return trip, he made camp where he had on the way in, and proceeded to go to sleep. The next morning, we was still alive and headed back to the village.

When he arrived, the tribespeople were excited to see him, for they thought that he would certainly be killed. But later that day, a group of men from the rival tribe came into the village unarmed (a rarity) and sought out the missionary. They then asked him, “Who were the men who were protecting you last night?” The missionary was confused. “I was all alone last night as I was on the way into the town. There was no one with me.”

“No!” answered the men. “There were eight men with torches standing around you, and they would not allow us to get near you. We intended to kill you and take your supplies, but they would not allow it.”

The missionary rejoiced in the protection of God and used that incident to reach to the enemy tribe of the tribe he was working with and as a result, peace between the two tribes ensued and there was much work done for the Gospel.

Later, when that missionary went home on furlough, he was sharing the story in one of his supporting churches. After he told that story, a man came up to him and said, “What was the date that this incident occurred?”

The missionary thought it a strange question, and after some thought he shared the date on which it happened. The man who had asked the question began to smile broadly and he said, “That very night, I was awakened and your name was on my mind. I tried to go back to sleep, but I could not. I just kept thinking about you. So I got out of bed, and said a prayer for you and went back to sleep. The next day, your name was still on my mind. I tried to work, but I couldn’t. You were all I could think about. So I called the men in my prayer group at about 3 PM and said to them, ‘I have no idea why, but we need to be praying for this missionary.’ So we got together at 4 at my house and we prayed through the night until about midnight, when we finally felt that all was well.”

Flabbergasted, the missionary inquired how many men were in his prayer group. “There are 10 of us,” he replied. The missionary thought that maybe the number of men praying might have been the same as the number of men seen by those who had meant him harm that night, but that was not the case…until the other man said, “but only 8 of us were able to make it that night.”

When God places seemingly random people on your heart, pray for them. Pray hard and make sure you keep praying until the Spirit says it is time to stop. You may never know the power of your prayers!

So keep on praying, and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Keeping the PACT

Yesterday, I challenged all of you to with the acronym PACT, and asked you to keep it. For those of you who missed it, it simple represents the following:

Praying for our new president-elect, Donald Trump, and those who will be serving this great country with him. We need to be praying for our leaders as we go about our day to day, and asking God to bring real change to our nation. But we must also remember that the best change in this nation will come when followers of Christ begin to act like they are followers of Christ (more on this tomorrow).

Adopt an attitude of kindness, love, peace, and patience with those who disagree with you, or who have apprehensions about the next four years. Remember the golden rule, folks, because we would want to be treated kindly if the shoe were on the other foot.

Continue to share the Gospel with those you come into contact with. Do not hesitate! There is only so much time any of us has on this earth, so use it wisely. Speak the truth to people. Many will hate you for it, but if it saves even one person, it is so worth it!

Teach your children, grandchildren, nieces & nephews, cousins, and whoever else you have influence over to react to things in the way that Jesus would. Show them Christ, and they will learn Christ.

So as you look at that (Pray, Adopt, Continue and Teach), is that a PACT you can be a part of? It is my hope that we all will continue to live in such a way that we would bring a smile to the face of our Heavenly Father.

God bless you all today, and we’ll see you on Sunday!

What Not To Pray For

What happens when we pray for things? Especially when we pray for things that tend to cause us to grow spiritually, the answers to those prayers come in the form of opportunity…that is, opportunities to practice those things. So because of this, there are a couple of things that you should never pray for.

Humility is one of the things that comes to mind right away, because what seems to happen is that we find ourselves in humiliating situations in which we need to humble ourselves and become all that God desires us to be in the area of humility.

Another is love for enemies. This request is almost always followed by a new enemy popping up, or an old enemy renewing your acquaintance. Nothing seems to cause us more consternation than a visit with someone we genuinely don’t like, but are commanded to love anyway.

But today, I want us to think about another of these things we don’t like praying for, and that is patience. Patience always brings with it opportunities to practice patience, or waiting, or peace in the midst of a trying situation. We are stuck in traffic when we’re late to be somewhere. We’re not getting a response from someone we need information from to complete a task. We are not seeing the speed from our computer to get the job done. Our kids are dragging their feet to get to the car to go to church. Any number of things that cause us to practice being patient.

But patience is much more than just waiting. It is waiting with the proper attitude. “Oh, no, you didn’t, pastor. You didn’t just go and start talking about our attitudes, now did you?” Yes I did.

The fact is that simple waiting is not the same as being patient. Patience demands that we wait with the proper attitude. And what is that proper attitude? It is focusing on the fact that God is in control. It’s looking at our delays not so much as an inconvenience, as a shield that God is using to protect us from something. As we wait, we need to focus on God and rejoice that He is in control…of the traffic, of our coworkers, of the internet, of the kids, and anything else causing us to wait.

So this week, focus on waiting on God, and practice your patience. And when your attitude is right, you might even want to start praying for it.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Pray About Everything

"Be anxious for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

--Philippians 4:6-7

There is something in these verses I want you to grab hold of because if we fail to do so, it will cripple our prayer life. The idea that I want you to hold onto is the very first phrase of these verses... "Be anxious for nothing." Another translation puts it this way, "Don't worry about anything!" Does this mean it is a sin to worry? No, but if we allow our worry to steal our peace, then it is a sin. 

Worry is something that we can't always control. As parents we worry that our kids won't learn from us all they need to be productive members of society. As children, we sometimes worry that our adult parents will need care beyond what we can give them. As employees, we worry that we might not have a job to go to in the morning. These are legitimate worries that people have. But when those worries begin to invade the peace that that God wants us to have, then it becomes a problem.

Paul says that the cure for worry is prayer. When we find ourselves beginning to worry about this or that or the other thing, it is time to go to prayer. Actually, the time to go to prayer is way before worry and anxiety begin to show their ugly faces. We are to give all that we have and all that we are to God, not so we can be blessed or rewarded, but so that He might be glorified in our lives.

So all this to say, keep worry at bay and find that inner peace that says, "God is here with me, and I will not be afraid of my circumstances, or my fears!"

Thanks for reading our blog today, and we'll see you on Sunday!

Pray Some More!

When we last talked, we were discussing the teaching that Jesus gave His disciples regarding prayer. We looked at the first two parts of that teaching, now let’s look at the rest.

The next thing that Jesus says to His followers is that they need to pray for their needs. First, He addresses the physical needs by telling them to ask for their daily bread. Notice that the emphasis is on daily bread. We are to ask God for the things we need today.

This point is illustrated in the account of the children of Israel as they walked through the desert for 40 years. Each day they were to collect enough “mana” for that day. If they tried to collect more and save it for the next day, it would rot and they wouldn’t be able to use it. But God provided for them each and every day. There wasn’t anything that they wanted for. It was enough for the day.

In the same way, God is calling us to pray not for what we need tomorrow, but what we need today. We can only be given what is necessary for today. Pray then that way.

He then addresses their spiritual needs, which is by far more important. He addresses them by telling them to confess their sins, and to seek forgiveness. They are to receive forgiveness in the same way they grant forgiveness. In the passage in Matthew, Jesus follows this up by telling them if they refuse to forgive those who have sinned against them, they shouldn’t expect God to forgive them.

This is a hard teaching because we see God as an all loving God (and He is). But He is also a just God and He will not allow us to go free if we are unwilling to set others free, too.

Prayer is important because we have needs. And God wants to meet each of these needs. Each day we should be praying that God will forgive us our sins because we sin each day. We need the physical needs of the day (food, shelter, etc.) and God is willing to grant us those things if we are willing to ask Him for them.

So how has your prayer life been the past couple of days? We’ll see you in church on Sunday!

A Time of Prayer

“It is no more possible to be a Christian without praying than it is to be alive without breathing.” Martin Luther King, Jr. said this, and I believe he’s right. Prayer to the Christ-follower is as essential as breathing. We cannot go for long holding our breath. In fact, the Guinness World Record for holding one’s breath is 18 minutes and 32.59 seconds (check it out here, if you don’t believe me).

Now some of us seem to think that we can go a lot longer without praying to God. Sometimes days and days at a time. But the truth of the matter is that without the life-giving “oxygen” of prayer, we will die in a hurry.

This week, I want to lead you on a search for what the Scriptures teach us about prayer. Let’s start with the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray. You’ll find the text of this prayer in two places. Matthew 6:10-13 and again in Luke 11:1-4. These are two different times that Jesus teaches the same lesson (as a side, it’s nice to know that disciples had to be taught things more than once, too!).

As we look at these two lessons, Jesus always starts by making sure we address God as “Our Father who is holy.” We must remember that God our Father is holy. He is a holy God, who desires to have a relationship with those He created (that’s you and me). But in order for us to have a relationship with Him, we need to come to Him in holiness as well.

So how does that happen? It can only happen when we have a relationship with Jesus. Through our relationship with Jesus, we are given Christ’s righteousness. When we have Christ’s righteousness, we are then holy…not because we are holy, but because HE (Jesus) is holy. So we can come to a holy God on the basis of what Jesus has already done.

He next teaches them to pray for the Kingdom of God to come. In the Matthew passage, He also adds the idea of asking for God’s will to be done on this earth as it is in heaven. The idea is that we need to ask God to have His will and His way in all that we do. When God’s Kingdom is evident on earth, His followers will be doing the things He wants them to do.

We’ll talk more about what the Lord teaches us about prayer tomorrow, but for now, why not spend some time in prayer and ask the Lord to help you be holy, and live according to His will.

And we’ll see you on Sunday!

Enough

Yesterday, we were challenged to make sure that we were keeping God as enough in our lives; that HE was enough for us, and that even if all else was taken away from us, we would still rejoice because HE was enough.

I got to thinking about this last night as I was trying to sleep, remembering that I hadn't set up a blog post for today, and really trying to make sure that in my life, God was enough for me. I then got to thinking about my day, and how I really spent the day doing things at the house, getting it ready to move in and such (for those who don't know, we bought a house at the beginning of the month and have been working hard to get it ready to move in by November 1st). As I worked, I realized that I hadn't thought of football at all for the whole time I was working. I was just working and singing and thinking. Then I got home and got ready for dinner, and my son asked me who won the game. I told him I hadn't a clue. God seems to be taking my passion for football and transferring it into a love for my family and for Him.

It's interesting that when we ask God to do something for us (like keep Him first in everything we do, or ask Him to be enough for us), He is more than willing to make it happen. When we pray according to His will, He delights in answering those prayers. When we pray, "Lord, help me put You first." He is right there to answer that prayer, because He wants to be first.

I guess I share all of this because I believe that when we ask Him according to His will, not only does He hear us, but He will answer, and that should be enough.

We'll see you on Sunday!