by Paul Tautges
A new devotional from Ed Welch released this week. In the same format as his SMALL BOOK ABOUT A BIG PROBLEM (Anger), Ed gently applies biblical truth to our hearts and minds, in order to help us learn how faith in the Lord, and Christ-centered focus, empower us to not be controlled by fear. Here are 17 quotes that renewed my mind, and stirred my affections.
“Whenever God speaks to you about your fears, you can be sure he will say something about being close. He even patiently persuades you that he is close. He piles up the evidence. Still, you can be blind to that evidence when fears are close and anxieties ring loud. The process of letting anxieties go takes practice that engages with God himself—which means you will engage with Jesus.”
“Jesus heard the words of the Father in the same way that we do—in Scripture—and there can be no doubt that he enjoyed the closeness of the Father through those words.”
“Jesus said, ‘I am the good shepherd’ (John 10:11). When you put your faith in him, then Jesus is your Shepherd. You need a Shepherd; he is pleased to be your full-time, night-and-day Shepherd. As you let go of self-trust and personal strategies for self-protection, you put your trust in him instead.”
“[O]ur worries tend to imagine a future without God in it. Without God we have to prepare for those future threats on our own. Life gradually gets smaller. Our mission to trust Jesus and love other people gets temporarily lost amid our future preparations.”
“[T]here are good reasons to worry. The dilemma is that worries tell you to take matters into your own hands, but that message needs to be altered to say ‘what a perfect opportunity to trust the God who is strong, loving, and faithful.'”
“Faith in Jesus will not replace your fears. Instead your faith will coexist with your fears and begin to quiet them. You will learn, by faith, to see your life from Jesus’s perspective and to trust that he is our ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).”
“It is not the disappearance of our anxieties that makes us most fully human; it is that we call out to the Lord on good days and bad days.”
“The Lord will give us all the grace we need for today. Tomorrow he will give us the grace we need for tomorrow. When you try to think about tomorrow without having yet received power for tomorrow, you will be anxious.”
“You do not yet have tomorrow’s grace so your imagination will tell an incomplete story of the future. If you are going to venture out into the future, continue far enough out so that the story ends with you welcomed into heaven for an eternity of no more sorrow, tears, and fears (Revelation 21:4).”
“Perhaps you think that your God is like a mere human. If another person really knew you, then you are certain they would not want to be associated with you. God, however, is not like us….He doesn’t love you because you have performed well. He loves you simply because He loves you.”
“It is natural for God to be gracious and compassionate. It is not natural for us to believe that he shows grace to sinners so he can be close to them. But it is the truth.”
“Living in hope means growing in the awareness that Jesus will be with us in the troubles of tomorrow. Hope also looks past tomorrow, all the way to when Jesus will appear in all his glory.”
“Fear of failure is a common expression of how we can be controlled by the opinions of others. It can also include a dash of financial fears because failing might affect income. This fear can show up as embarrassment, shame, attempts to cover up, over-committing, never committing, and an interest in the superpower of becoming invisible. Pastors and others who are publicly scrutinized are sure to quickly find this in their thinking.”
“We don’t tend to grow in humility and humanity through our success. Failure can lead us to dependence and trust in our successful and competent God. That is true success.”
“The Bible makes it clear that we live in a world with endless threats. In this world getting rid of all of your worries is not an option. Instead the Lord counters your fear with comfort.”
“What can an enemy do? Quite a bit. But no enemy can restrain God from remembering and acting on your behalf. No enemy will ultimately triumph.”
“God is the Watchman. God is the Guardian. He will never let anyone snatch you from him. The evil of others might touch you but not own you.”
Now available from WTS Books.