What Are You Afraid Of?

I read an email this morning, summarizing something that a well-known and respected teacher had said in a huge conference. To summarize the summary, she said there is going to be a shortage of food in this country.

Let us go on the supposition that she is hearing from God. What are you going to do? Stock up on cans of food in your basement? Till up extra footage for a bigger garden? Save heirloom vegetable seeds? Get in a panic? Take your money out of the bank? Flee the country?

What are you afraid of?

Let me ask you more questions. Do you really want to see the wickedness around you destroyed, or do you enjoy having something to complain about? Do you really want to live in the miraculous, or have you gotten comfortable with thinking wistfully about days gone by when you witnessed one or two miracles? Do you really want to hear from God, and take frightening and risky steps of faith, or are you content living in what you know, and living in the safety of what you’re comfortable with? Do you really want to rule and reign, or would you rather have your boss and your doctor and your president tell you what to do?

Are you throwing in your lot with the wicked, who will experience the very thing he is afraid of; or are you joining ranks with the righteous, who will eventually have the good things he longs for?

Some months ago, the Lord put it in my heart to make a rather odd request for an acquaintance of mine. I prayed that the Lord would make this fellow absolutely miserable. You may think that is a nasty thing to pray, but not so. See, he’s lived for years with a low-level misery, and he likes it. He wouldn’t give up any of his unpleasant circumstances if you paid him to take them off his hands. Clearly, then, there is only one thing that will convince him to give up his misery and seek a good life: becoming so miserable he can’t stand it. Meanwhile, the Lord has made me able to establish some good boundaries, so that his misery doesn’t make me miserable.

What is true on a small scale is also true on a larger scale. Do you expect people who "have it all" to seek the Lord? While what they’re doing is working even minimally, do you expect folks to desire or even accept or allow change? Of course not! Don’t be silly! But while they are in a panic, running blindly in fear in the face of disaster, it is time for you to enlarge your vision. The baby always arrives in the middle of pain, not pleasure.

Lift your eyes higher than you’ve lifted them before. Enlarge your thinking and your vision. Sure, trouble will come. It always does.

But you, mighty warrior, go out now and take the land the Lord has promised to you!

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