“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but love, power and a sound mind.”
—2 Timothy 1:7
There are so many kinds of fears. In fact, there are 530 documented fears and phobias. 6.4 million people in America have actually been diagnosed with some kind of disorder in their personality because of fear.
Some are kind of fun. I mean there’s the fear of heights, that’s not so much fun if it happens to you. There’s the fear of flying. There is the fear of tight places; that’s claustrophobia. Agoraphobia is the fear of open spaces. There are people who have a problem getting in a big room when there are so many people around.
These are some common phobias, but there are also the destructive and negative fears that rob us of peace and joy, paralyzes us, petrifies us from moving forward with our lives. If you live with fears of various kinds, it will hold you back from becoming the person that God has called you to be.
The one thing that you can do to overcome your fears is to live in victory in your life. You can be free from fear and live with a courageous and confident faith in a God you can trust. And one of the great benefits and blessings of being a Christian, a child of God, is that we can live free from fear.
YOU CAN CHOOSE FAITH OR YOU CAN CHOOSE FEAR. IT’S A DAILY DECISION.
Friday, February 15, 2019
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.”
Micah 7:18–20
After playing a crucial role in the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, Sir Francis Drake returned to his lucrative and successful career as a privateer. His attacks on Spanish treasure fleets were so successful that King Phillip II of Spain offered a bounty worth $8 million in today’s money for anyone who captured or killed Drake. In 1596 while attacking Spanish strongholds in the Caribbean, Drake became ill and died of dysentery. At his request, he was dressed in his full suit of armor, placed in a lead-lined coffin, and buried at sea off the coast of Panama. Despite numerous expeditions carried out with modern diving techniques and cameras, his coffin has never been recovered.
One of the most beautiful pictures in the Bible of the way God deals with our sins is the image of them being thrown into the sea where they will never be found. Many people are haunted by things from their past, but while the scars and consequences of sin remain, the guilt is gone forever when we confess and forsake that sin. The devil may bring up the past, friends or family may bring up the past, our conscience may bring up the past, but God never brings up the past. He is full of mercy and compassion, and when He forgives us He does so freely and forever.
Today's Growth Principle:
The sins you have confessed and God has forgiven in your past are gone forever in His eyes.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment