Journey, 1-24-08

Fear and Faith

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, thought the earth give way and the mountains fall into the sea.” Psalm 46:1-3

“And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” Matthew 13:58

Two of the things I have been thinking about lately are fear and faith. Last night the pastor preached on Psalm 46. He talked about how God is our refuge and we have no need to fear. The area of fear that caught my attention was fear spawned by uncertainty. I have a million questions along the lines of “what’s next God?” and though God does not let me in on the details of his plan I have no need to fear. As the rest of Psalm 46 tells us, we win in the end. If the victory is guaranteed then what do we have to be afraid about? Pastor Phil went on to talk about verse 6 and how God’s voice melts the earth. It is a pretty amazing picture of the God who is our refuge. Since the power of his voice alone is able to melt the very earth we stand on what in the world do we have to fear?

In contrast to that is the verse in Matthew 13 that I noticed last Sunday. The people of Jesus’ hometown missed out on the power of the Messiah because of their lack of faith. May it never be said of me that I missed out on the work that God could have done in and through me because I doubt and lack faith. Instead let me ask Him to give me the faith that I lack, while removing the fears that I can’t seem to shake.

As I ponder these contrasts it is a reminder that I, once again, need to take God out of the box that I so often mentally push him into and remember just how GREAT He really is.