-Worry can shorten your life. How futile is anxiety! We’re to live by faith. This is always the fruitful way to victory. The believer is not to be fearful like the person of the world (II Tim. 1:7). G. Campbell Morgan rightly pointed out, “The real strength of a man is not physi cal, but moral and spiritual. If you keep your head, while others are losing theirs, you’ll be taller than anyone else.” After 20 centuries of human time, faith continues to re main the most adequate insurance against adversity, anxiety and fear. We need not fear. When we know Jesus Christ, God relieves us of all unnecessary fears in our Christian experience. C hapter S even T here are certain characteristics which ought to be true of every believer. He should be living on the victory side of the cross, in full and unmitigated surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, walking in the Lord in this wonderful life of spiritual vic tory. We are to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. Fear feeds on the anxious heart. Our minds are rather to be stayed on Christ. There are many fears in the hu man life. If we’re not careful, it’s easy to be caught up in them. In Matthew 14 we have recorded the incident of Peter’s attempt to walk on the water. When he began to sink, he cried, “Lord, save me!” Im mediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and comment ed, “0 thou of little faith, where fore didst thou doubt?” This is an interesting declaration. People to day want to know where peace can be found. Men search for peace of mind in all the wrong places. The world wants tranquillity without the Saviour. Believers desire it without spiritual surrender. Secularism says it could have peace if only wealth and position could be attained. There
are fears of the past and future; fear for the loss of health and loved ones; fear of war and its attending horror; fear of failure and the un seen. All of these stalk across the stage of men’s minds. The world without Jesus Christ knows no peace (Isa. 59:8). But this world has no corner on the market of fear. It possesses everybody, including the Christian if he isn’t careful and walking closely with the Lord. In Christ, the believer has the ability, through the Holy Spirit, required to face the problems and demands of life. God’s love is always tender, but it’s also strong, virtuous and faith ful. It involves self-discipline. We don’t face problems in our own strength. When we do, we’ll always fail. God wants us to draw on His strength as we surrender complete ly to His will. Paul, in Galatians 2:20, makes it very clear that Christ is living with in him. Surrendering to the will of God enables us to manifest the fruits of the Spirit. Fears cannot work their devastating program of evil in the believer trusting the Lord fully for his courage and strength. Many today feel that because they have temptations and testings they The will of God — nothing less, noth ing more, nothing else. In the Bible, we have the only record of the wonderful PAST of creation, the only reasonable explanation of our be wildering PRESENT, the only valid un folding of the mysterious FUTURE. A part of kindness consists in loving people MORE THAN THEY DESERVE. A single moment of careful thought may save hours of vain regret. TRUST IN GOD AND SUBMISSION TO HIS WILL are the only real solutions to the problems of worry and fear.
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