Charles Stanley – Facing Your Fears

September 29, 2013 broboinhawaii 1 Comment

Fear is the uneasy feeling that we are inadequate. It is an alarm that goes off when we feel threatened. It keeps people from the attainment of their goals.

I’m not talking about normal, natural fears—such as the fear of falling or the fear of walking onto a busy highway. I’m talking about a gripping, paralyzing fear that is truly a spirit of fear. Paul wrote to Timothy, “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7).

Let me give you an example of this type of fear. Imagine a person who believes strongly that the Lord desires him to take a new job. He starts with confidence and enthusiasm. Soon he realizes that has much to learn about how to succeed in this new role. The whole project begins to seem insurmountable and overwhelming. He begins to take to heart the criticism of others. He feels as if he is a failure and will never succeed at this new position. He says, “I don’t have what it takes. I’m scared of taking any more risks.” The longer that trend in thinking goes unchecked, the more he moves in to sheer panic until he just wants to flee completely. Fear wins out and he does not accomplish God’s goal for his life.

When fear strikes you, face fear head-on. Ask yourself, What am I really afraid of? Break down the nature of your fear. Are you afraid of failure that will lead to criticism? Are you afraid of failure that will lead to rejection from someone you love or admire? Are you afraid that your weaknesses and inadequacies will be exposed? Are you afraid that others will withdraw from you or perhaps even punish you?

Admit the fears to yourself and to God. And at times, you may be wise to admit the fears to others. Then turn immediately to the matter of your faith. Faith is the solution for fear. Do things that build up your faith.

The first and best move you can make to build up your faith is to get your eyes off your problem and off yourself and onto Jesus. He is the Source of all your supply. He is utterly reliable and possesses all knowledge and all authority. Speak aloud the words of Hebrews 13:6 until they sink deep within your spirit: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

People may criticize, reject, ridicule and persecute, but they can’t take away your salvation, your relationship with Jesus Christ, your eternal home in heaven, or the joy, contentment, and inner strength the Lord imparts to you.

Second, ask the Lord to give you the help you need.It is one thing to say, “The Lord is my helper,” and another to say, “Lord, help me today,” or “Lord, help me right now in this situation.” You may need an answer to a problem, friendship, a good mentor or teacher, wise counsel, or extra energy and strength. Be specific in your requests.

Third, encourage yourself by memorizing the Word of God and quoting it as often as you need a fear-buster of inner strength.Take Isaiah 41:10-13 to heart. In this passage, the Lord promises to give us His presence; give us His power, which is vastly superior to his strength; give us His provision, which is more than sufficient; give us His protection against all of our enemies. What more could you need? Remind the Lord often of His fourfold promise to you.

And, finally, ask others to pray for you. Ask them to uphold you daily in prayer and in turn, pray for them and their success. We read in James 5:16, “Pray for one another so that you may be healed.”

What might the man in the example have done as he took his new job? He might have said, “I don’t know all about this job, but the Lord knows. He will help me get the information I need so I can be successful.” Instead of being overwhelmed, he could have chosen to see the job as a mountain to be climbed, step by step. When he failed, he might have confessed error to the Lord, and asked God to help him learn from his mistakes.

Every person alive has suffered loss. But if we continue to move forward in pursuit of God-given goals, He will give us victories in areas where we have struggled in the past. He will turn all things to good (Rom. 8:28).

Don’t be surprised when fear emerges. Nothing good in life comes without a struggle against fear. The key is to run headlong at fear with your faith in Christ Jesus and your confidence firmly set in Him. You can overcome fear!

Related Resources

Our Daily Bread — Color Courage

September 29, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

1 Corinthians 4:10-17

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. —1 Corinthians 11:1

A radio ad for watches suggests that listeners buy a watch with a bright color band and then wear it with clothes of other colors. When people notice your watch because of its contrasting color, the ad says, “They’ll see that you have ‘color courage.’ And they’ll want to be like you.” Something in us enjoys having others follow our example.

If you do a quick reading of 1 Corinthians 4, you might think the apostle Paul sounds a bit boastful when he says to follow his example of self-sacrifice (v.16). But a closer look at Paul’s words shows why he wrote so confidently. He could ask people to imitate him because he imitated Christ (11:1), the greatest Servant of all.

The persecution he endured and the position he held in the church (4:10-17) all happened because Paul followed Jesus. When he mentioned that even if the Corinthians had 10,000 teachers he would still be their father in the faith (v.15), he was acknowledging that Jesus is the only reason people could trust his teaching.

If we want people to imitate us, we must first imitate our Lord. If we have any reason for people to follow our example—if we have any courage to point others to the Savior—it is because of Him, not us. —Anne Cetas

Joyfully following Jesus the Lord

And trusting His lead every day

Makes us examples that others can see

To follow when trials come their way. —Sper

Others should imitate us only as far as we imitate Christ.

Bible in a year: Isaiah 7-8; Ephesians 2

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Think Again: Beyond Mere Morality

September 29, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Beyond Mere Morality

Posted by Ravi Zacharias on August 28, 2013 – RZIM

AS HUMAN BEINGS, we have the capacity to feel with moral implications, to exercise the gift of imagination, and to think in paradigms. We make judgments according to the way we each individually view or interpret the world around us. Even if we do not agree with each other on what ought to be, we recognize that there must be—and that there is—an “ought.” For example, we all ought to behave in certain ways or else we cannot get along, which is why we have laws. In short, we ascribe to ourselves freedom with boundaries.

Yet too often we shun boundaries because we feel impeded or we’re afraid they will deprive us of what we think we really want. While we know that freedom cannot be absolute, we still resist any notion of limitation … at least for ourselves.

The Bible does not mute its warning here. We are drawn like moths to the flame towards that which often crosses known boundaries, that can destroy, and yet we flirt with those dangers. But at the end of life, we seldom hear regrets for not going into forbidden terrain. I do not know of anyone who died as a Christian exercising self-control who wished he or she had been an atheist or had lived an indulgent life. But I have known many in the reverse situation.

In this inconsistency we witness unintended consequences. As I have noted before, I have little doubt that the single greatest obstacle to the impact of the gospel has not been its inability to provide answers, but the failure on our part to live it out. That failure not only robs us of our inner peace but mars the intended light that a consistently lived life brings to the one observing our message.

After lecturing at a major American university, I was driven to the airport by the organizer of the event. I was quite jolted by what he told me. He said, “My wife brought our neighbor last night. She is a medical doctor and had not been to anything like this before. On their way home, my wife asked her what she thought of it all.” He paused and then continued, “Do you know what she said?” Rather reluctantly, I shook my head. “She said, ‘That was a very powerful evening. The arguments were very persuasive. I wonder what he is like in his private life.’”

The answers were intellectually and existentially satisfying, but she still needed to know, did they really make a difference in the life of the one proclaiming them? G.K. Chesterton said, “The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried.” The Irish evangelist Gypsy Smith once said, “There are five Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four.” In other words, the message is seen before it is heard. For any skeptic, the answers to their questions are not enough; they look deeper, to the visible transformation of the one offering them.

The Christian message is a reminder that our true malady is one that morality alone cannot solve. A transformed heart by God’s grace is the efficacious power that lifts us beyond mere morality. It is the richness of being right with God. His grace makes up for what our wills cannot accomplish.

Here we must bring a different caution. Christianity is definitively and drastically different from all other religions. In every religion except Christianity, morality is a means of attainment. No amount of goodness can justify us before a sovereign God. The Christian message is a reminder that our true malady is one that morality alone cannot solve. A transformed heart by God’s grace is the efficacious power that lifts us beyond mere morality. It is the richness of being right with God. His grace makes up for what our wills cannot accomplish.

At its core, the call of Jesus is a bountiful invitation to trust and freedom to live in the riches of that relationship. I am only free in as much as I can surrender to God and trust Him to give me the purpose for which my soul longs. This is the wonder and power of a redeemed heart. If I cannot surrender and trust Him, I am not free. We must know to whom we belong and who calls us all to the same purpose. Only when I am at peace with God can I be at peace with myself, and only then will I be at peace with my fellow humans and truly free.

I remember meeting a doctor from Pakistan several years ago. He was a Muslim by birth and practice. He was invited to go to hear a Christian speaking on the meaning of the gospel. He told me he didn’t really care much for what was being said, until the final two statements. The speaker said this: “In surrendering one wins; in dying one lives.” In surrendering to Christ we have the victory over sin. In dying to self, Christ then lives within us.

When that crucified life is seen, men and women are drawn to the Savior because they see what the gospel does in a surrendered heart. That witness lives within the boundaries our Lord set for us and takes us beyond mere morality to the life of the soul that is set free.

Warm Regards,

Ravi

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Lessons from Leprosy

September 29, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

And if the leprous disease has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease.

Leviticus 13:13

This regulation appears to be very strange, but there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of this singular principle. We, too, are lepers and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be completely lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and with no part free from pollution, when he disclaims all righteousness of his own and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the blood of Jesus and the grace of God.

Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are nothing else but sin, for no confession short of this will be the whole truth. And if the Holy Spirit is at work within us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty in making such an acknowledgment-it will spring spontaneously from our lips.

What comfort this text provides to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed, however deep and foul, will never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus. “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”1 Though dishonest as the thief, though immoral as the woman who was a sinner, though fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though rebellious as the prodigal, the great heart of love will look upon the man who feels himself to have no health in him and will pronounce him clean when he trusts in Jesus crucified. Come to Him, then, poor heavy-laden sinner.

Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome and bare;

You can’t come too filthy-come just as you are.

1John 6:37

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – Declension from first love

September 29, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Revelation 2:4

John MacArthur – Praying for Others

September 29, 2013 broboinhawaii 1 Comment

“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18).

The great preacher D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “Before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in Barcelona, Madrid and other places, there were psychological clinics with large numbers of neurotics undergoing drug treatments and others attending regularly for psychoanalysis and such like. They had their personal problems, their worries, their anxieties, their temptations, having to go back week after week, month after month, to the clinics in order to be kept going.

“Then came the Civil War; and one of the first and most striking effects of that War was that it virtually emptied the psychological and psychiatric clinics. These neurotic people were suddenly cured by a greater anxiety, the anxiety about their whole position, whether their homes would still be there, whether their husbands would still be alive, whether their children would be killed.

“Their greater anxieties got rid of the lesser ones. In having to give attention to the bigger problem they forgot their own personal and somewhat petty problems” (The Christian Soldier: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10 to 20 [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978], p. 357).

That’s a negative illustration of a positive principle: your own problems pale as you pray in the Spirit on behalf of others. Praying “in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:18) is praying in concert with the Holy Spirit–in harmony with His Person and will. It’s synonymous with praying according to God’s will (1 John 5:14).

As the Holy Spirit intercedes for you (Rom. 8:26-27), you are to intercede for others. That’s not always easy in our contemporary religious environment where self- centeredness is praised rather than shunned, and more and more professing Christians are embracing the health, wealth, and prosperity heresy. But God’s mandate is for us to love one another, pray for one another, and look out for one another’s interests (Phil. 2:3-4). Let that mandate govern all your relationships.

Suggestions for Prayer:

Make a list of people you want to intercede for.

Spend time praying for each person, asking God to show you specific ways to minister to his or her needs.

For Further Study:

Read Philippians 2:1-11.

What should be your attitude toward other believers?

How did Christ set an example of proper attitudes?

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Think On Purpose

September 29, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude].

—Ephesians 4:23

A real breakthrough came for me in my love walk when I realized that love was something I needed to do on purpose. I could not wait to feel loving; I had to choose to be loving. The same rule applies to our thoughts. We must learn to think good thoughts about people on purpose.

We must learn to look for the good, not the bad, in everyone. We all have faults and weaknesses, but we all also have good qualities. I admit that we must look harder to find the good in some people than in others, but to be like Jesus, that is what we must do.

Jesus finds the good in everyone and magnifies that instead of the bad. He found the good in me and started developing it until it finally surpassed a lot of the things that were wrong with me. He has done the same thing for many of us, and He expects us to do the same for people we encounter every day.

Take a moment and try this experiment. Just sit and think some good thoughts on purpose about someone you know, and see how much better you feel about yourself. If you keep it up, you will begin to notice changes in that person’s attitude toward you. One reason that individual will change is that you will have changed.

Thinking good thoughts opens the door for God to work. If we want the Lord’s good plan to manifest in our lives, we must get into agreement with Him (Amos 3:3). He is not negative in any way, and according to the Bible, we have been given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)—but we must choose to use it.

We also have a mind of the flesh, and I often feel it is like the earth’s gravitational pull; if we don’t resist, we are pulled in its direction. Because of humanity’s sinful nature, our thoughts will automatically go in a negative direction unless we direct them otherwise.

Love Others Today: Choose to think good thoughts today–even if you don’t feel like it.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – The Holy Spirit Will Speak

September 29, 2013 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry about what to say in your defense. Just say what God tells you to. Then you will not be speaking, but the Holy Spirit will” (Mark 13:11).

Have you even had the experience of trying to say a word for the Lord, just sharing your faith, and breathing a prayer for guidance – then marveling as the Lord Himself, by His indwelling Holy Spirit, put the very words in your mouth that needed to be said?

Such has been my experience – many times. And I marvel and rejoice each time. On some occasions, I have addressed crowds of varying sizes, often not only feeling totally inadequate but also concluding my message of the evening with the feeling that I had been a poor ambassador of Christ. Then, someone had approached me after the service and thanked my for saying just the word he needed at that moment.

We serve a faithful God. That neighbor who needs a word of encouragement – ask the Lord to give you the right words to say to him or her. That correspondent hundreds of miles away – trust God for His message to him or her through you.

Certain conditions must prevail, of course, before the Holy Spirit can speak through us. But they are easily met. I must come with a clean heart, surrendered to the Holy Spirit, with my sins forgiven, having forgiven other people, holding no resentment or ill feeling against anyone. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18, KJV).

Let us trust God and His indwelling Holy Spirit for the very words of counsel we should say to a loved one or friend today.

Bible Reading: Acts 2:1-4

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will trust God and His Holy Spirit to put the very words in my mouth this day that need to be said to others whose lives I touch.

DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION

Daily Archives: September 29, 2013

Charles Stanley – Facing Your Fears

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Victory Over Fear

Our Daily Bread — Color Courage

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Think Again: Beyond Mere Morality

Alistair Begg – Lessons from Leprosy

Charles Spurgeon – Declension from first love

John MacArthur – Praying for Others

Joyce Meyer – Think On Purpose

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