Faith Overcomes Fear
What do you fear? Is there
something in your life that you fear? I
think we all have fear at one time or another in our life. In 1 John 4:18 it says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because
fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”
I was reading about Elisabeth Elliot. She is a Christian author and speaker whose
first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956.
He was a missionary who wanted to tell the Aucas tribe about Jesus. This tribe was known for killing outsiders in
their area. They started by flying over
the area and dropping food down to the tribe.
They eventually landed a small plane on the beach near where the tribe
lived. They had gradually been
communicating with the tribe and meeting with them.
One day they saw two women come out of the jungle. As they approached, a group of tribal
warriors attacked and killed the missionaries.
He was 29 years old. That is what
I call overcoming fear. He wanted to
reach this little known tribe and tell them about Jesus. Although he had a gun and could have killed
the members of the tribe, he didn’t.
Each of the missionaries had promised they would not kill an Auca who
did not know Jesus to save himself from being killed. That is what I call having faith and love
that overcomes fear.
Two years later Elisabeth Elliot, her daughter and the sister of
one of the other missionaries who was killed returned and moved to the Auca
village. Many of the Aucas became
Christians. If anyone had a reason to
fear it was Elisabeth Elliot. She knew
what the tribe was capable of but the mission was more important than her fear
of what could happen.
I think my problem is often that I fear too much and don’t love
enough. This kind of love takes everything
you have in you. We will know when we
have the right kind of faith when we are willing to get past our fear and love
someone else that we don’t know enough to care about saving them for eternity. That is when we will step out in faith instead
of retreating in fear. I think Psalm
23:4 says it best. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil: for thou are with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
God didn’t promise He would protect us from harm. If the Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear? If the Lord is the
strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 34:4 it says, “I sought the
Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” God
loves you and me just as much. He won’t
take away the fearful things of this world, but he will deliver and comfort you
if you seek Him.
Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there
are so many times in my life when I allow fear to overtake me. You promise to comfort me when I am fearful
and to give me strength to overcome my fears.
The problem is sometimes my faith is not strong enough to push aside the
fear. I want to depend on You alone for
comfort and strength when I become fearful.
Thank you for giving me verses that show me what perfect love is and how
to practice faith. When I read about the
fears of others who have faced life and death situations because of their
faith; my fears seem small. Thank you
for giving me great examples to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment