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Have You Ever Been Afraid?
Matthew 10 – Fear is something that all of us have experienced. The disciples here were probably experiencing some fear as well! If we are true disciples of Jesus we will also be asked to face some times and situations in our lives that will cause us some fear.
Jesus tells us clearly in these verses to “Fear them not.” While it is nice to hear our Savior say these words, and to know that they are true, we often want some evidences that these words are true. We’re going to look at several things here that talk about reasons that we should not be afraid.
- Truth always wins in the end. Jesus tells us that we don’t need to fear because truth always wins the battle in the end.
- God is greater than anything that man can do to us. All a man can do to us is end our life. For the Christian the end of life is only the beginning.
Further scriptures – Luke 12:6-7, Psalm 147, Isaiah 43:1-2, John 10:3, Daniel 3, Romans 5:8, Genesis 37:17-18, Kings 6:13-14, Psalm 124.
God is a great big God
Do you know how many stars there are? There are some estimates and some guesstimates, but even the “experts” don’t know. The number of the stars is unknowable. This isn’t something that is to big for God to understand. The Bible tells us that God knows all of the stars by name.
God doesn’t struggle to remember who we are. God knows us. God made us. God has a purpose and a plan for each of us.
God is much bigger than the things that bring fear to our lives.
God notices and values things we don’t understand and cares about the tiniest details of life
Sparrows are tiny birds. They aren’t worth a lot. Sparrows are everywhere. The most common bird on the planet. Sparrows die all the time and we rarely notice. Sparrows are not majestic like bald eagles. They don’t soar gracefully like a sea gull. Sparrows aren’t ugly necessarily, but they are very very common.
Yet… God notices sparrows. When one dies, God notices.
Have you ever felt like a sparrow? Or even the fifth sparrow that might have been thrown in for free when someone purchased four sparrows?
Our problems are often around trusting Gods ways of doing things and his timing and methods. Not so much that God exists.
Not a single sparrow around the world is forgotten by God. Jesus tells us to fear not because we are of much more value than a sparrow. Jesus didn’t die for sparrows, he did for us.
God knows and cares about the tiniest details of our lives. Even when we don’t know about them or care about them.
God doesn’t have any limits
There are limited all around us about so many things. We do not have a God who is limited. We don’t pray to a God who is limited.
Our prayers change when we understand that we cannot escape God’s care. We have short attention spans. God understands even our sorrowful groans. God knows all about all the things that we face and struggle with and care about.
We cannot run God out of time. God is the God of eternity. We cannot waste God’s time when we pray. Prayer is never ever a frustration to God. God loves. We cannot exhaust God’s love.
We tend to apply our limitations to God… God is limitless…