12-28-07 The gospel of peace -- Luke 1:74
... to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve Him without fear ...
-- Luke 1:74
If we really understood the truth, could anything frighten us? The Bible says, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can mortal man do to me?" Well, mortal man can do quite a bit. But Paul, who received "quite a bit" from the hand of mortal man said, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us."
What does this mean? It means that the gospel -- the real gospel -- is so powerful that it transforms our fears into peace and turns cowardice into courage. When speaking of the armor that defends us from the schemes of the evil one, Paul refers to the "gospel of peace."
How do we receive this transformation from God? By denial? By suppression? By pretending that we have no fears, when, in reality, we are riddled with them? I don't think so. It's by inviting Jesus into our fears and asking Him for the transforming truth.
One day I was driving to a church to tell a pastor about a seminar I was doing. For some reason I found myself dreading this meeting, and a shaky fear was growing inside me. So I just found a quiet spot on the road, pulled over to the side, focused in on this fear, did my best to discover where it was coming from and invited Jesus into the whole mess. Nothing terribly dramatic happened, but the fear dissipated and I sensed it was time to go on. I went into the church without fear, had a wonderful meeting with the pastor, and went on to have great meetings with several other pastors that day.
You see it isn't our heads that need to know all this information about "Fear not for I am with you," but rather it is our hearts. That's why we find our fears and invite Jesus into them so He can get the truth to the place where it's going to make a difference.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
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