Choosing your destiny

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Faith and Worry

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”
John 14:1–4
Toward the end of 1943, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Joseph Stalin were scheduled to meet in Tehran, Iran, to discuss strategy in the war against Germany. As the three leaders prepared for the trip, made even more dangerous by the ongoing war, Roosevelt wrote to Churchill and expressed some concern over the meeting location. He feared that Tehran was in range of German bombers, and they could be subject to attack. Churchill sent back this message: “See St. John chapter 14, verses 1 to 4.”
Those nine words, and the truth of the verses Churchill referenced, contain the cure for worry in any situation of life. Our faith is not that nothing will ever go wrong—Jesus spoke these words just hours before He was put to death on the cross—but that God is in control, and our eternal destiny is secure in Him. The more that we believe in God, the less we worry. Troubled hearts reveal that we are not trusting Him as we should.
The reminder that Jesus gave to His disciples just before the crucifixion was that there is more than this world in our future. The burdens and troubles and trials of life are real, but they are temporary. And the God who sees us through them has an eternity prepared for us. Nothing that anyone or anything in this world can do will change that. It is settled and secure according to the unfailing promise of Almighty God.

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Worry vanishes when we remember that God is in control and we can trust Him.

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Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him… --Mark 10:21 I want to talk with you today about one of the most tragic pictures in Scripture. Jesus had just told the rich young ruler that he must sell all his possessions and give to the poor in order to follow him. The man went away brokenhearted because he was clearly unwilling to do what Jesus required. Do you know what Jesus did next? He did nothing. He didn’t cajole him and say, “Oh, come on back. I’m sure we can negotiate something.” He let the man go. This young man who had it all lost it all in an instant. He might have become a mighty preacher or used his wealth to the glory of God. He could have laid up treasures in heaven! But none of those things happened. Now you have a choice to make too. You can choose to follow Christ and to be with him forever or to be separated from him for eternity. Jesus will not force you to follow him, and he will not change the terms of salvation. You come to Jesus on his terms, or not at all! Right now Jesus is looking at you and loving you. And he invites you to turn loose of anything and everything that would keep you from following him. Pick up your cross. Follow him, trust him, believe him and receive him into your heart right now.   JESUS WILL NOT FORCE YOU TO FOLLOW HIM.