Luke 12:32  Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

Anxiety is a big issue in life for many people. It is fostered by concern over our health, our family, our job, and our financial security. Anxiety can drive us into thinking that we are responsible for getting ourselves out of whatever mess we're in. As we attempt to get out of the quagmire of our anxiety, we only seem to succeed in plunging ourselves deeper.

Anxiety is really a matter of misplaced trust - trusting ourselves instead of God. We find it difficult to take God at His Word, trusting that He knows what we need. How could a God who seems so remote know the ordeals that we have to suffer on the human scene? In answer to our doubts about God's care for us, we build up our own self-sufficient kingdoms - kingdoms in which we are the masters of our destiny. We try to be the creators of our own lifestyles and providers for all our desires and needs. We slave away at getting the things that make for the good life.

Slaving away is probably the best description because it aptly describes our condition before God. We are enslaved to sin, to our evil desires, to our self-centeredness. We try to earn what we deserve - and we succeed because we have earned death.

Our trust has been misplaced. And our anxiety grows. But God in His lavish love gives us the gift of His kingdom. It is to be His kingdom, not ours; His righteousness, not our pride or efforts. God, "who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all" (Romans 8:32), gives us the kingdom of His grace, mercy, and forgiveness. His Son, Jesus, took a cross, the load of our sin, and cruel death to free us from anxiety, to relieve us of the burden of trying to play king of our own kingdoms. Through Christ's death and resurrection we have been made children of God, inheritors of the kingdom of God. We can trust our Lord to provide for us. Thus we follow in the footsteps of His lavish love.
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Luke 12:7  Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.

Jesus had just pointed out the birds in their commonness, their number, the way God cares for them. He stressed to His listeners that the Father knows the birds, each and every one of them!

And then He pushes the illustration either to absurdity or awe by adding that the Father even keeps track of the hair count of every human head!

But neither the birds or human hair are the point of His conversation. The point is us. The same God who has all that detailed, technical curiosity about birds and hair has an even more intense, watchful concern for every one of us. So says Jesus.

And proof? Then and now the proof is in the redemptive work of Christ so clearly spelled out in Scripture. He not only died to save all His children but sent His Spirit that we might believe in what He has done. Some God!

And if all that's so, what's to worry? About anything?
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Luke 11:28  Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.

Jesus was not about to be distracted in His ministry even if the distraction was someone who said something nice about His mother. After hearing Him speak, a woman in the crowd said, "Blessed is the mother who gave You birth and nursed You." Jesus responded with our text. In essence He said, "There are a lot of nice things in life, but when it comes down to it, nothing is nicer than the hearing, and then doing, of what God wants.

That's the sequence. First comes hearing. Then, hopefully, the doing. Doing never precedes hearing. Godly hearing gathers the data on which godly doing is based. Hearing God is essential to the Christian life.

That means that the hearing that takes place in the Bible study, in worship, and in Christian conversation is important - fundamental. It is the point of beginning, but it's not the end of it. The end of each listening session is on the other side of doing.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Luke 11:13  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!

Well? What do you think? Do most parents know how to care for their children? They must, for about the most common reluctant commendations of even evil people is,  "He/she was a caring father/mother." The police have captured some wanted men in the past by keeping watch of their children, confident that the criminal father would contact his child.

Jesus makes His point: If it's true that bad folks can do good things for their sons and daughters, just imagine the great good that the author of good, the heavenly Father, will do for His! No evil comes from Him. No harm hides within His active care. Even the worst things that befall us, Paul testifies, are worked by our loving Lord into something very good (see Romans 8:28).

Do you want proof that that is true? Look at Calvary, on a Friday that only children of the Father could call good. What a great thing He did there for us!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Luke 1:37 For nothing is impossible with God.

What an awesome God we serve! God formed the world by a word. God parted the Red Sea. God provided manna for the Israelites. God brought down the walls of Jericho. Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus healed the blind, the lame, and the sick. Jesus walked on the water.

The Holy Spirit empowered Peter and the disciples to speak up for God. The Holy Spirit brings comfort to those in pain. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin.

God is involved in all areas of our lives. Knowing this gives us the courage to come boldly to the throne of grace and to make our requests known. No matter how dark the night or how impossible the situation seems, we can have hope. Nothing is impossible with God!

Therefore, if God chooses to intervene in our lives, nothing will stop that intervention. So when you are faced with a difficult choice, pray for guidance. When you are hurt, pray for comfort. When you need wisdom, pray for it. When all odds are against you, pray.
 

We have limitations. God does not. Pray believingly.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Mark 16:15  Go into all the world.

Although it is important to be a pastor, in its place, it is just important to be a layperson anyplace. For anyplace, as opposed to church, is where important decisions that affect our world are being made. In the layperson's world big things are happening: nuclear power has been discovered, lend-lease, computer chips, and Hula Hoops have been invented. Clergy ponder, dream, hope, pray, and have magnificent visions. Every last one of those is essential. But it is not in church where history's crucial acts are performed or the world's battles are joined. Even the invasion of Satan's kingdom by the army of Christ occurs in the lay world, not in the world of the clergy. Clergy train the troops, map the strategy, and equip the army. But the job is done by laypeople.

Among Christians it's almost a truism to remark that the need of the day is to get people into church. There is a need, too, to get Christian people out of the church. It is part of God's strategy that His people go into the world, invade it, and take possession of it in His name.

In the final analysis it's not a matter of getting Christians out of the church, exactly. It's a matter of getting the church out of its sanctuary, out of its preoccupation with its own machinery and interests, and into the battlefield. Interestingly the Bible does not say, "Whether you worship or pray or whatever chrchly thing you do, do it all for the glory of God." It says, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever (day to day, homely thing) you do, do it all for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).
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Mark 11:24  Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

A preschooler was traveling with her family on Interstate 10 over the Atchafalaya basin from Baton Rouge to Houston. It was dark. The darkness was caused both by the time of day and even more by the fog. Because of the fog, one could only see a few feet in front. By the quietness in the car, it was apparent that all were afraid. This fear was heightened when the family met a car going the wrong way on the interstate. At that point, the preschooler inquired if it was all right to ask Jesus to take away the fog.

Trying to make sure that the proper theological answer was provided, the parents carefully explained that God could say yes, but He might say no, or He might say wait a while.

With the conclusion of the answer, the child prayed aloud that Jesus take the fog away. Within five minutes, the fog was completely gone. One could see the stars and, more important, the road very clearly.

Did God take the fog away as requested in the prayer? I don't know. I know that His Word says that He has the power to respond with a resounding yes. The God who created the heavens and earth, who raised the dead to life, and who forgives sins has the power to make and take away fog.

Have you prayed today?
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,