God is always faithful

Isaiah 41:10 NRS do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand

Fear.  It is every where.There is something everyday to be afraid of in this life. Rumors of war, terrorist attack, natural disasters, sink holes that swallow humans, high gas prices, high utility bills, sick children, dying children, funeral of a child are only some of the things that strike fear in all of us.  It seems that when fear happens to us we gather at the nearest watering hole for a stiff drink to drown out the sorrows of our fear. We worry about the unknown as though we were shadow boxing with the enemy. In John 20: 26-29 Jesus returns briefly to his followers who were in a room that was locked. When Jesus return briefly he turned to Thomas who had a hard time believing unless he saw with his own eyes. After feeling the marks in his hands Thomas said to him " my Lord and my God!" Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

 God constantly reminds us in his scriptures that He has overcome the world and if we would place our faith in him he will give us the confidence to overcome all of the negativity, all of the bad news we hear on a daily basis.

In one scene from Apollo 13 when some of the staff were grumbling about this being the worst disaster NASA has ever known the mission commander turns to them and tells them, " In all due respect  I think this will be NASA's greatest moment"  It is easy to be negative because it is part of our human nature.  Walk into any social setting you will find people grumbling about something. Grumble, grumble, grumble as though they were a slow moving diesel locomotive moving slowly across the tracks.  As Christians  we have a reason to be happy and we have a reason to have hope for the future.  We know God has overcome the world.  We no longer have to shadow box with the enemy and we no longer have to fall prey to the daily grind of half truth news.

God helped my family to overcome the fear after the sudden passing of daughter.  I remember being told that  we might want to consider moving from our home because of the memories which might be too much for us to handle  The memories of the emergency medical personnel trying to find some pulse. The memories of being told that they had done all they could but she could not be revived.  Instead of running from our fears we chose to lean into our grief and watch God transform us.  Five years later we continue to live in our home  with new memories because we allowed God to bring us through the greatest disaster of our life. Rather than focus on the death of our child we rejoice knowing that we have a child in heaven and one day we would be reunited.

 Because of what Jesus did on the cross we have a reason to be positive and people in this world need us to show them this hope.  Being positive and getting people to look at the bright side of the gloom and doom is just one way for them to see that how special and unique you are because of the hope they see in you.