Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.
Opening Prayer: O Lord our God, help us to live our lives with
the faith and courage necessary to live by love and not by fear. Forgive me when my seeing and my thinking get
so distorted that I allow fear to control me and make me its slave—even when I
don’t fully realize it. Seize my heart
and soul with your perfect love in such a way that it drives out all fear and
gives me the freedom to truly love, rather than manipulate, those in my life
and world. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Scripture Reading for the Day: Mark 6:45-52
Reading for Reflection:
The older I get, the more
I realize that quite possibly the biggest single enemy of our spiritual lives
(other than Satan himself) is fear. Fear
seems to be at the very core of all the things that battle against my heart and
soul. At the core of my busyness is
fear. At the core of my insecurity is
fear. At the core of my anxiety is fear. At the core of my competitiveness…you guessed
it—fear. Fear of not having what it
takes. Fear of not having any value. Fear of not being lovable. The list goes on and on.
And maybe the main reason this enemy is so
strong and dangerous is that by and large it is a hidden enemy. We never really look beneath the surface of
our more familiar enemies to spot it. We
rarely follow any of these foes down far enough to see what is at their
root. And when we don’t know what we are
really fighting, how can we possibly be victorious? We just keep getting defeated over and over
again. This fear robs us of the intimacy
we were created for. It robs us of the
freedom that God longs for us to enjoy.
It robs us of genuinely loving relationships. It simply controls the way we live our
lives.
What are we to do? How can we possibly fight against this? A first step would seem to be identifying and
naming our fears. Somehow naming
our fears takes some of their power away to control us. Ann Lamott once said, “When you make friends
with fear, it can’t rule you.” Once our
enemy is identified it makes it much easier to wage war.
Secondly, we need to remember that our
real enemy (Satan) is the “father of lies.”
He will use his lies to manipulate us into believing whatever he can. Because of this, it seems that we need to ask
ourselves, “What lies are we believing that are simply not true? How is our seeing or thinking
distorted?” When the disciples were on
the sea battling against the storm (Mark 6:45-52) they screamed out in terror
because they thought Jesus was a ghost.
Now it wasn’t really a ghost upon the water… they just thought it
was. It was their distorted thinking and
seeing that gave power to their fears.
Once they saw things clearly and therefore thought about things more
accurately—they were able to put everything in perspective.
Which brings us to the biggest weapon we
have been given to wage war against fear—and that is what John calls “perfect
love” (1 John 4:18). It is perfect love
that puts everything in perspective for us.
Once the voice of perfect love calls out to us, “Take courage. It is I.
Don’t be afraid.” Then we are
reminded that the love of the one who made us, and called us into being, and
cares for us more than we can even care for ourselves is in control of all
things. And His heart for us is good—he
can be trusted even when circumstances look dire because he loves us so
immensely and completely. When he speaks
His words of affection and peace and we hear and truly believe them; then we
know that if he is with us—it will be well.
Whatever it is, whatever the seas look like, it will be well.
Reflection and Listening: silent and written
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Closing Prayer:
Lord Jesus,
Help me to hear your words, “Take
courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” and to believe them in the
deepest places of my heart. Help me to
live my life by those words this day.
For your sake and by your Spirit and in your name. Amen.
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