Thought for May 17, 2024

•  1620: First Merry Go Round seen at fair in Turkey
• 1792: New York Stock Exchange formed at 70 Wall Street
• 1875: First Kentucky Derby
• 1900: Frank Baum publishes "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"
• 1904: Ravel's "Sheherazade" premiers
• 1939: First televised baseball game--Princeton v. Columbia
• 1946: President Truman takes control of the railroads
• 1954: Supreme Court decides Brown v. Board of Education
• 1973: Senate Watergate hearings begin
• 1990: World Health Organization removes homosexuality from list of mental illnesses
• 1992: Betsy King wins her 5th Major
• 1993: Intel Pentium processor unveiled
• 2009: "Minecraft" released
• 2018: Michigan State agrees to pay $500 million for Larry Nassar sex abuse
• Born: Edward Jenner, Horace Dodge, Cool Papa Bell, Maureen O'Sullivan [Jane in Tarzan movies], Dennis hopper, Bill Paxton, Bob Saget, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jim Nantz, Enya, Matt Ryan
• Died: Botticelli, John Jay, John Deere, Bobby Ewing [on "Dallas"], Donna Summer, Ken Venturi, Herman Wouk

Thought:

Have you ever been afraid? I know we all had fears as children--fear of the dark, fear of the sounds in the dark, fear after watching scary movies. Maybe we had fear of being alone, being abandoned. Or maybe we feared that our parents would not come and get us or would not come home. Maybe we were afraid of a test at school, a speech we had to give, a game we had to play. Perhaps we did something and were afraid someone would find out. As adults, we might fear for our job, our health, our children and grandchildren. Many conversations with friends are about how these loved ones are going to survive in a world that seems to get darker and darker. 

Maybe David had some fears  when he wrote Psalm 27. I am reading verses 1-3 and 13-14. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus encounters His disciples and greets them with "fear not." This tells me that Jesus knows all about our fears because fear is one of the chief weapons of our enemy. Fear can make us run away; fear can make us compromise or remain silent; fear can cause us to seek help from the wrong places; fear can chill our witness; fear can disturb our rest; fear can confuse our thoughts; and fear can take our eyes off Jesus. 

David asks a very simple question in 27:1--if the Lord is my light and my savior, whom shall I fear? If the Lord is my defender, whom shall I dread? Paul says it differently in Romans 8--"If God is for us, who is against us?" "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Then Paul lists things that make us afraid--tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. We conquer all these things, all these fears, through Him who loves us. 

David says that when enemies come  and surround me, when the enemy wars against me, he will be confident. [27:3] I have said before that "confidence" means with fidelity/faithfulness. So my ability to face the enemy without fear is anchored in my faith that God will be faithful and keep every promise. Look down at 27:13-14. David says if he simply looked at the physical circumstances, he would have despaired--but his faith in the goodness and faithfulness of God drove away his despair and fear. Then David gives some good advice--wait on the Lord. Patiently endure. God will do exactly what He has promised in His time. Wait in confidence.

So, today what are you going to face that causes fear? Is there anything you will face that He cannot handle? If He is my Savior and my light, if He is my defender--whom shall I fear? 

Blessings

Larry