A Reflection for October: Be Not Afraid!

How often do you hear someone say ‘Don’t worry’?  When I look at our world there are a lot of reasons why we might be worried.  September is normally considered to be a month of new beginnings, fruitfulness and excitement.  This year, we are faced with a lot of change and uncertainties.  We do not know how the next 3 months will pan out, let alone the next year.  Fear and anxiety is becoming as pandemic as Covid-19.   Our concerns include what is happening in our schools and universities, whether we can take a holiday or not, approaching cold weather and flu season, climate change, antagonism between nations, Brexit, family issues and even the elections in the United States.  We are uneasy and unsettled.

Some use the expression - ‘I’m feeling hammered’.  A hammer can be used to build or to break things up.  What a hammer does is dependent on the person using it.  It is similar when we face problems and difficulties.  The key is in how we face and deal with them.  We can let situations  crush us, making us depressed and unable to face the future and avoid thinking about God.  On the other hand, they can cause us to fall back on God, and want to build our relationship with him and find the comfort we need.

Recently, we have been limited in how we go about practising our faith as a religion.  Church services are different.  There are strict guidelines about what we must do and this is a struggle for some.  However, we have realised that our relationships are the most important.  Jesus taught us that there are two commandments to follow - to love God, and to love our neighbour.  There has been considerable growth in these areas recently - locally, nationally and in many parts of the world.

There are 365 references in the Bible to not being afraid or not worrying - one for each day of the year. Therefore it must be possible for us to lay our anxieties and fears at Jesus’ feet.  Philippians 4:6 says ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’.  The two words ‘with thanksgiving’ are part of the key to unlock that peace.  A song by Hillsong can help us to worship God in this way.  Hear it on YouTube - https://youtu.be/ahscQk-QAX0


I will bless the Lord forever and I will trust Him at all times

He has delivered me from all fear and He has set my feet upon a rock

I will not be moved, and I’ll say of the Lord

You are my shield, my strength, my portion, 

Deliverer, my shelter, strong tower

My very present help in time of need.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflection: The Son is the Radiance of God’s Glory

Image
"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and - the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." -  Hebrews, chapter 1 I’d like to try and paint three pictures in your mind, without PowerPoint, if possible! Please do bear with me.  The first starts with a question!  Have you ever seen a partial eclipse of the sun? You know, when the moon moves across the sun and it looks like someone’s taken a bite out of the sun itself. It’s usually a big thing, predicted for weeks ahead with lots of publicity and TV coverage. If the weather is good and it’s a clear day, you can see the passage of the moon really well. I remember looking at several over my life, one in Cornwall in mid-summer, which was quite amazing, one in the back garden here on the Wirral, six or seven years ago, and one when I was at school.  The thing I recall most about that one was that the teachers distributed black plastic photographic film. We had to hold the film up against the sun
Read more

"I Feel Like a Lump of Coal"

Image
I was recently in a Zoom meeting when someone said “I feel like a lump of coal”.  We were discussing the current world crisis and its effect on the church and ourselves as individuals.  The person who said this was feeling very low due to her own personal circumstances and I began to think about the meaning of what she said.  A dirty piece of coal does not look attractive and seems quite useless.  In fact, unless it is in a fire burning with other coals, it will not do what it is meant to do.  If a single coal is taken out of the fire, it no longer burns - it dies.  We are like coals and we need fellowship with others as part of spiritual growth.  This is very difficult in the present situation when we can’t meet together in groups and it is easy to feel alone and isolated.    Coal is made of carbon and we can learn a lot from exploring the various kinds of carbon.  We are all equal in the eyes of God.  We are one but we have different characters, even changing at different times.  L
Read more