Turning Fear into Faith - Acts 10:39-41

Tuesday March 8

Turning Fear into Faith - Acts 10:39-41 (ESV)

“but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.”

 As Patricia and I minister among the students at Haskell Indian Nations University, several confide in us of their fears and apprehension upon graduation.  Will I find a job using my degree?  Will I find a job at all?  Will I return to the reservation and make a difference or will I return and just become another unemployment statistic?

Too often, because of their apprehension, they forget to trust God. I encourage them by reminding them: If I want the plans He has for me, I must trust God in all ways.

In the Passion story, we clearly see that Jesus was apprehensive of the future as well. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked His Father if He really needed to go through with His suffering and death. And He prayed “yet not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

Jesus knew the plan of God. But He still had fear because He was fully human, emotions and all. That fear was overcome in the same way we are told: to meet fear with faith, in the promises of God through prayer.

Even Jesus had to put His trust and confidence in the Scriptures! Jesus knew He would rise from the dead because the Scriptures said so. In the face of death, as Jesus was condemned for our sins, Jesus put His trust in the promises of God, who would not “let his Holy One see destruction” (Psalm 16:10).

“If God is for us, who can be against us? And we know God is for us, because He sacrificed his one and only Son for us, on the cross.” (Romans 8:31-39)

Holy Spirit,
Give me the faith that overcomes my fears, through Jesus Christ,
Amen.

Rev. Will Main - Lawrence, Kansas