Are We Living In Fear And Negativity Unmindful Of All The Small Miracles Around Us?

Are We Living In Fear And Negativity Unmindful Of All The Small Miracles Around Us?

 

Good Morning Friends,

 
 

Our daily fears and negativity can become words that are tools of destruction or they can be overcome in a way to build us stronger in relationship with God. Our world is filled with management techniques, but our words do not bring out our best if they are about controlling and manipulation of people. We need to submit and use God’s words and power to overcome the evil traps of fear and negativity set around us. We must control our words and emotions to be edifying and encouraging. God desires us to avoid the traps of fear and negativity and grow to be mature in our love both in our words and actions. So, Are We Living In Fear And Negativity Unmindful Of All The Small Miracles Around Us?

 
 

Scripture:  Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3: 1-8 (NRSV)

 

 
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah

 

Psalm 32: 1- 7 (NRSV)

 

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’

 
 

Mark 7:31-37 (NRSV)

 

 
 

Message: Since Valentine’s Day is this Sunday, in advance I thought it would be good to contemplate love and the perfect and amazing gift of Jesus set against the reality of fear and negativity and unforgiveness in our lives. And the thing is that many do not know what they really want in this regard for they do not know Jesus. Many think they know what they want not realizing what they really need. No wonder we all too often choose the wrong things. Love is not a once and done deal. It is more like the way of faith, abiding in doing small things with great love.  I am hoping this morning that you are open to the leanings of the Holy Spirit in helping you to figure out how the memories and senses of your mind might be renewed and reconnected in a way to glorify God. Many claim to have faith but do not demonstrate it in their behavior. That kind of faith is dead. Friends, it is not faith when individuals enforce their own will instead submitting to God’s will. Maybe we need is a funeral service for dead faith and a revival from God of the kind of faith and love God intends for us. We need to obey the path of wisdom and learn to love God as we respond to His love poured out through Jesus Christ. Maybe we need to realize that an act of true faith is a living faith. Friends, there is only one good faith. Only turning to God is good faith and it is more than blind optimism. Yes, we are justified by faith but if our actions do not demonstrate such an internal state of love for God and others, maybe we really do not believe in the right thing at all. Maybe we are getting in God’s way. Friends, sometimes we are to back off and sometimes to step in. Only if we really love will we know. Maybe you have experienced a love that lasts with you, when a seemingly random event felt extra special and full of meaning and it overflowed into a spiritual burst of importance in your life. Maybe it was nothing less than the power of a small miracle that draws out of our ordinary lives a profound and remarkable gift and blessing and a sense of harmony with the universe of possibilities. We might find security in obedience but typically when we are so challenged, we are inclined to tell ourselves lies in our search for safety and security. We tell ourselves the lies that our safety can be found in a place or in earthly power. Our thinking is too often foolish and can so easily lead us back into slavery. The alternative, when our faith and love is put to the test, is to sense and obey the Spirit believing that it is not foolish to trust God when we recognize His purpose. Friends, each and every day God wants to make His glory known to others…He wants to teach us to trust Him completely…to share in His perspective and rely on His promises. Friends the Lord will fight for you in the small miracles…look for them and let them strengthen and permeate your relationship with God. Here we might also see that the smaller scale, more personal approach can bring Christ into closer focus. C. S. Lewis said that, “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” Maybe that is the message Christ wants our hearts to experience. As people in general, and Americans in particular, we are inclined to measure the import of an event in terms of the scale of its effect. However, in Mark’s story we see a small relatively insignificant miracle recorded in preference to the something more dramatic like the parting of the Red Sea. Great things when it comes to love can come in small things.

 
 

And So, fear is nothing more than unbelief that God does not care or is unable to act. The beauty is that by spending even a little time with Jesus each day makes all the difference. Probably here may have been times in your life when you felt like you needed a parting of the seas to survive…something huge and dramatic. But God does not seem to work that way now. We need to look beyond the Cecil B. DeMille’s drama of Big Miracles and experience God directing our energies to help fight for the little guy… the least, last and lost… in extraordinary coincidences each and every day to make a great impact over time. Along this train of thought today we have compared the wonder of the grand scale to a more personal healing that Jesus desired to keep quiet. Today I hope we have exposed the potential of time and small actions as an expression of love that lasts. There is nothing that can extinguish faith faster than fear because fear makes us turn our eyes away from God, it makes us look at all that seem to overwhelm us instead of the love right before us.

  
 

 

Pray we realize that the opposite of fear is not courage or bravery but faith in God’s love. Pray we realize that the miracles of God are still at work today. Pray with this in mind that we are open to God’s healing love. Pray we are open to God’s way of salvation. Pray we do not play favorites but extend love to those who need it most. Pray we seek and knock so the way will be opened. Pray we have the right state of mind. Pray we live in the moment of all moments as an infinite happiness that wants nothing. Pray we do not mistake the world’s ways for the goodness of God. Pray therefor the faith of Christ is alive and filled with miracles of actions that nudge others closer to God. Pray we learn to trust God in every situation. Pray we stay positive under pressure. Pray we stop feeling helpless and hopeless. Pray that when we come to what looks like a dead end, we focus on the hope we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pray that our prayers lead us to action. Pray we find time to be compassionate. Pray we experience the power in small miracles.

 
 

 
 

Blessings,

  
 

John Lawson