Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions (37 page)

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e must learn how to deal with fear before it goes too far because it will never completely go away. Feeling fear is part of being alive. We may feel fear when we are doing something we have never done before, or when the obstacles seem insurmountable, or when we don’t have the natural help we feel we need. None of this means we are cowards; it means we are human. We can only be cowardly when we allow our fears to dictate our actions or decisions, instead of following our hearts and doing what we know is right for us.

We must accept the fact that fear will never go away completely, but also know we can live boldly and courageously because God has told us that He is always with us. Because of that knowledge we can choose to ignore the fear we feel. It’s okay to feel fear; it’s not okay to act on those feelings. You see, the word
fear
means “to take flight” or “to run
away from,” and it causes us to want to flee from what God wants us to confront.

The only acceptable attitude for a Christian to have toward fear is
“I will not fear.”
Do not shrink back from anything in fear. You may be going forward with something you feel God has spoken to you to do. Then something happens to make it appear that it’s not working out or that people are not in favor of it. You realize that if you do what God wants you to do, you may risk losing some friends, some resources, or your reputation.

When you feel that fear, the first impulse is to shrink back, isn’t it? God knows that, and that is why He says, “Do not fear.” When He tells us not to fear, what He means is, no matter how you feel, keep putting one foot in front of the other and doing what you believe He has told you to do because that’s the only way to defeat fear and make progress.

T
he Lord led me to study the above Scripture, and I was startled to realize that I had only half of what I needed to know to connect properly with God. I had the faith (trust) part, but not the “do good” part. I wanted good things to happen to me, but I was not overly concerned about being good to others, particularly when I was hurting or going through a time of personal trial.

Not only was I lacking in this area, but I realized that most of the other Christians I knew were probably in the same condition. We were all occupied “believing” God for the things we wanted. We prayed
together and released our faith through the prayer of agreement, but we did not meet together and discuss what we could do for others while we were waiting for our needs to be met. We had faith, but it was not being energized by love!

I don’t want to sound as though I was totally self-absorbed, because that wasn’t the case. I was working in ministry and wanted to help people, but mixed in with my desire to help were a lot of impure motives. Being in ministry gave me a sense of self-worth and importance. It gave me position and a certain amount of influence, but God wanted me to do everything I did with a pure motive, and I still had a great deal to learn.

There were times I did acts of kindness to help people, but helping others was not my number one motivator. I needed to be much more aggressive and purposeful about loving others; it needed to be the main thing in my life, not a sideline. God helped me change in this area, and I am much happier because of it.

Ask yourself what motivates you more than anything else, and answer honestly. Is it love? If it isn’t, are you willing to change your focus to what is important to God?

I
believe the world is watching Christians, and what people see Christians do is very important. In the Scripture above, Peter encouraged believers to conduct themselves properly and honorably among Gentiles, the unbelievers of the day. He said even if the unbelievers were inclined to slander the believers, the unbelievers would eventually come to glorify God if they saw the believers’ good works and loving deeds.

If your neighbors know you go to church every Sunday, I can assure you that they also watch your behavior. When I was growing up, our neighbors dutifully went to church. Actually, they went several times a week, but they also did lots of things they should not have done. I recall my father often saying,
“They are no better than I am; they get drunk, use bad language, tell dirty jokes, and have bad tempers, so they are just a bunch of hypocrites.”
My dad was looking for an excuse to not serve God anyway, and their behavior just added fuel to the fire.

I certainly realize that as Christians, we don’t behave perfectly, and that people who want an excuse to not believe in Jesus or practice Christianity will always watch us and criticize us. But we should do the best we can to not give them a reason to judge us.

G
iving and living selflessly do produce harvests in our lives. There is nothing wrong with desiring and expecting a harvest. Our motivation for helping others should not be to get something for ourselves, but God does tell us we will reap what we sow, and we can look forward to that benefit.

God promises to reward those who diligently seek Him (see Heb. 11:6). The word
reward
in the original Greek text of the New Testament means, “wages received in this life” or “recompense.” In the Hebrew language, in which the Old Testament is written, the word
reward
means, “fruit, earnings, product, price, or result.” The word
reward
is used sixty-eight times in the Amplified Bible version. God wants us to look forward to rewards of our obedience and good choices.

If we care about those who are poor and oppressed, God promises that we will not want, but if we hide our eyes from their need we shall have “many a curse” in our lives (Prov. 28:27). The writer of Proverbs even says that when we give to the poor we are lending to God (see Prov. 19:17). I cannot imagine that God does not pay great interest on what is loaned to Him. I urge you to work to bring justice to the oppressed. That simply means that when you see something that you know is not right, you work to make it right.

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e all probably want more light in our lives. That would mean more clarity, better understanding, and less confusion. The prophet Isaiah declared that if we would divide our bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into our homes, cover the naked and stop hiding ourselves from the needs around us, our light would break forth (see Isa. 58:7–8). He also said our healing and restoration and the power of a new life would spring forth quickly. That sounds good to me, and I am sure it does to you also.

Isaiah also wrote of justice, and he said it would go before us and conduct us to peace and prosperity, and that the glory of the Lord would be our rear guard. If we are actively helping the oppressed, God goes before us and He also has our backs! I like that feeling of safety and certainty.

Isaiah further said if we would pour out that with which we sustain our own lives for the hungry, and satisfy the need of the afflicted, our light would rise in darkness and any gloom we experienced would be comparable to the sun at noon (see Isa. 58:10). The sun is very bright at noon, so it sounds to me like helping people is the way to live in the light.

The Lord will guide us continually, and even in dry times He will satisfy us. He will make our bones strong and our lives will be like a watered garden (see Isa. 58:11). All of this happens as a result of living to bring justice to the oppressed.

I hope you are seeing what I am seeing through these promises. I think most of us waste a lot of our lives trying to
get
what God will gladly
give
if we simply do what He is asking us to do: care about the poor, the hungry, the destitute, orphans, widows, the oppressed, and needy. Live your life to help others, and God will satisfy you in every way possible.

T
he Bible says in several places that God is not a respecter of persons (see Acts 10:34, Rom. 2:11, Eph. 6:9). He does not treat some people better than others because of the way they dress, their levels of income, the positions they hold, or who they know. He not only treats everyone the same, it seems He goes out of His way to treat those who are hurting especially well.

The apostle Peter said this:

Before you rush past this part, take an inventory of how friendly you are with people you don’t know and especially those who are entirely different from you. Some people are just naturally friendly and outgoing in temperament, but those of us who don’t seem to have the “friendly gene” need to make a decision to be friendly because the Bible says to do it.

The apostle James admonished the church not to pay special attention
to people who wore splendid clothes to the synagogue or to give them preferable seats when they came in. He said if people acted in these ways and wanted special treatment, they had wrong motives (see James 2:1–4). In other words, we are to treat all people as being worthy of respect.

Jesus put an end to distinction between people and said we are all one in Him (see Gal. 3:28). We simply need to see valuable people—not rich or poor, highly educated or uneducated, not the labels in their clothes, hairstyles, the cars they drive, their professions or titles—just people for whom Jesus died.

M
other Teresa said,
“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”

I have discovered that most people we meet or come into contact with in our everyday lives do not have a sense of their infinite value as children of God. I think the devil works very hard to make people feel devalued and worthless, but we can neutralize the effect of his lies and insinuations by building people up, encouraging, and edifying them. One way to do this is with a sincere compliment, which is one of the most valuable gifts in this world.

Most people are quick to compare themselves with others, and in doing so, they often fail to see their own abilities and worth. Making another person feel valuable isn’t expensive and doesn’t have to be time consuming. All we need to do is get ourselves off of our minds long enough to think about someone else, and then find something encouraging to say. Making people feel valuable won’t cost any money, but it gives them something worth more than anything money can buy. Offering a sincere compliment may seem like a small thing, but it gives someone tremendous strength.

I believe in having goals. As I was working with God to develop good habits in the area of encouraging others, I challenged myself to compliment at least three people each day. I recommend that you do something similar to help you become a frequent encourager.