Psalm 119:1-8, Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Mark 12:28-34
The command to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves is called the Great Commandment and is fundamental to Christian living.
How do we love God with all our heart? By godliness in all of life.
Last week I talked about how we see ourselves and how God sees us and why it is important to sort the truth from the lies about ourselves. Today we have another area where we have to sort truth from lies. There are so many people wanting us to believe what they believe and it is so easy to be manipulated.
One of the ways we are manipulated – and it is not new – is by fear. Fear is the second of the three things I alluded to last week. We are told to fear one thing in order to turn us in favour of the purported good. Politicians do it by telling us that if we vote in their opponent we will get bad things that they describe or imply. Advertisers do it by telling us to get in while we have a chance. It won’t last. They play on our fear of missing out, which is so prevalent these days it has its own acronym: FOMO.
Fear is not a good motivator
In the past evangelists used to preach ‘hell-fire and damnation’. They reasoned, fairly, that people need to be aware of their sin and its consequences so as to have a reason to turn to God. Did it work? Yes and no. One problem with this method is that fear is more debilitating than motivating. Fear doesn’t get us up in the morning or get us excited about a new project. Fear weighs us down and holds us back. What do you do out of fear? Use locks and keys, PINs and passwords. Lock the locks and keep your keys safe. Memorise your PINs and passwords. Take precautions, like not roaming the streets and alleys in the early hours of the morning. Speak nicely to someone you know has a flaming temper.
This is low-level fear and our actions are designed to lower our risks. Have you noticed how the higher the level of fear the less we are able to do? I can’t say how any of us would react if someone were to shove a gun in our face and start telling us what to do. But that is a real situation. What I’m getting to is the fear of that high level of danger – being afraid of some dire thing – when it’s not actually happening and not even likely. A lot of people live with this kind of fear.
I wonder if Paul was referring to something like this in 2 Corinthians 7: “When we arrived in Macedonia province, we couldn’t settle down. The fights in the church and the fears in our hearts kept us on pins and needles. We couldn’t relax because we didn’t know how it would turn out. Then the God who lifts up the downcast lifted our heads and our hearts with the arrival of Titus. We were glad just to see him, but the true reassurance came in what he told us about you: how much you cared, how much you grieved, how concerned you were for me. I went from worry to tranquility in no time!”
Paul was worried. Worried for the people in the church and he’s a hundred miles away from them. This is more than pastoral concern for the flock, this is one troubled pastor. We might be surprised that a Christian we generally look up to would be downcast like this. Wouldn’t Paul, of all people, have it all together? It can happen to anyone. Life’s trundling along when suddenly you’re overwhelmed by fear. There are numerous possible causes. I suspect in Paul’s case it could well have been that he was over-tired. That’s what it was for me, a few years ago, when fears started to hit me hard. I was shocked. This shouldn’t be happening to one who knows Jesus. I know better than to say that now. I didn’t really know what to do, but what I did was the right thing.
What got Paul back? Titus turned up with news – first hand account – that things were nothing like what Paul had feared. Worry to tranquility just like that! It’s like being frightened by shadows in a dark room and then turning on the light. What did I do? Each time I felt fear I asked my self, ‘What is true, here?’ I knew that the fear wasn’t the truth. It wasn’t even real. The truth I reached to was that God is bigger and more powerful than all the fears I can dream up, and furthermore, even if they were real, God is in control, he loves me and he holds me in his hand.
God is in control
Sure, I could have blamed God as many do. I could have moved away from God, talked with him less, as I was tempted to do. But I knew that the fears were not God’s doing and I knew that God had the answers I needed. So I moved closer, held on to what is true, reached for the truth whenever fears came and progressively got on top of it.
Move towards God not away from him.
It’s the most natural thing for a child to move towards their parent. Same us to God.
On a recent visit with Andrew we were talking about our neighbourhood and King’s Store was mentioned. Next thing a man appeared between the curtains that were around the bed next to Andrew’s. He had heard us and was interested because he used to live in the area. It transpired that he even used to come to St. Margaret’s. I thought of Jim Wallace’s questions as he talked positively about his experience at St. Margaret’s as he grew up. Clearly it had done him no harm, yet he had not continued with God. So I asked him what had happened to his faith. His answer was typically vague, something like it just faded out somehow. So I said, “God’s always near so you can reconnect any time.” He said, “Not just now.” closed the curtain and disappeared from our view.
I have no idea what his medical issue is but it must be serious since he is in hospital. As I said to Andrew, “I would have thought that when you’ve got medical issues is a good time to reach out to God.”
It’s good to make a life habit of seeking God, moving towards God, reaching for God, talking with God, listening to God and living his way.
There’s a lot of it about – I meet it all the time. Fearful people, depressed people, demotivated people. And the things feared are often not identified, just vague, niggling disquiet. These people identify with the psalmist who wrote:
My insides are turned inside out; specters of death have me down.
I shake with fear, I shudder from head to foot.
“Who will give me wings,” I ask—“wings like a dove?”
Get me out of here on dove wings; I want some peace and quiet.
I want a walk in the country, I want a cabin in the woods.
I’m desperate for a change from rage and stormy weather.
Psalm 55:4-8 (MSG)
It’s a struggle because the media play on our fears. Negative people around us dump their fears on us too. Fear and related depression is all too common among Christians these days. I believe it is because we are inclined to think that Jesus will keep us secure and happy and we fail to understand our part in holding on to truth. We forget that we have to evaluate every idea for truth-worthiness and sift them, holding on to that which is true and rejecting error.
Also, fear is the antithesis of faith. It may be a result of weak or wavering faith. It also shows a lack of appreciation of, and trust in, God’s love for us. Remember, “There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. ” (1 John 4:18) God’s love is perfect love. We must be convinced that we are worth the world to God and that God is in control, and that God has the power and the will to deal with fearsome stuff for us because God is on our side.
The prevalence of depression among Christians today also suggests people are being overtaken by false beliefs. Yes, there is a lot of bad stuff in the world. There’s a lot of good, too. And the situation would be a lot worse if God didn’t limit the bad and promote the good.
Remember, the truth is that God is bigger than all the things we fear and God is in control. It is with the whole of his truth that God frees us from our anxious fears. Psalm 34:4 for example: “God met me more than halfway, he freed me from my anxious fears.” And also, Psalm 56:11: ‘Fearless now, I trust in God; what can mere mortals do to me?’
Love God with all your heart – hold on to truth and reject error.