Day 9

If We Live Life In Faith

Fear Is Evicted

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

Today will build on yesterday. In addition to the way we’re often controlled by either faith or fear, something else that controls us as much or more than these are our perceptions. Few of us live in actual REALITY. Most of us live by our PERCEPTIONS — of people events, and God.

Today we will look at something most of us miss about why faith doesn’t seem to work. This is because of the difference between faith and fear. We don’t see how often we approach God in fear, not in faith!

We can quote TRUE verses, but we do not see GOSPEL TRUTH:

“Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

“Faith works through love.”

“The just shall live by faith.”

“Fear not!” (This is repeated over 300 times).

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

First, what is fear? We all know the obvious: something scares us, — we are frightened and in terror. But fear is also defined in terms of a mood, a timidity, or even a reverence. It is defined in terms of a concern, a worry, a wrong perception, an uneasiness, and a misgiving. It is defined in terms of what we shy away from, due to human nature. Fear is very intuitive. Some forms of fear are good and spiritual, not bad. The Bible speaks of the joy of fearing God. This doesn’t mean he scares us (although he does some Christians), but that we hold him in awesome regard. Jesus says God is the only one we should fear.

The fact is it is if we don’t live in gospel truth,
and don’t live in the faith that the gospel produces,
then fear is much more prevalent in our lives than faith.

We talked about this in the previous day: approaching God
with our prayer lists — about Aunt Annabel and Uncle Uriah.

Now, what is faith? Faith is unquestioning belief. It consists of complete trust, confidence and reliance. It is full of loyalty and allegiance. See it: faith cannot be defined without an object. Many folks place their faith in horizontal, worldly, natural THINGS — things they want to happen. Our faith should be in God not in things. He is the only one worthy of our faith. Thus, our faith is often in the wrong object.

God should be the END of our faith. But too often we transform him so he becomes the MEANS for us to accomplish some other end!

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear; because fear has torment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us” (I John 4:18-19). We also read, “Faith works by love” (Gal 5:6). This speaks of God’s divine, agape love, — not human love.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #19

Now put these together and see gospel reality: God’s love rules in faith, and it also rules over fear. Read these passages as many times as you need to in order to truly see this. Let me say it again this way: the ONE thing that is dominant in both faith and fear, is God’s LOVE!

God’s love works to (1) empower faith, and (2) disempowers fear.

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Now let’s talk about what it is that empowers us to take action in any type of life situation. It doesn’t matter if you view it as simply doing something, setting goals to achieve, obedience, approaching someone, or anything else. What is it that propels us into motion — into action — into doing what we know to do? It is FAITH!

On the other hand, what is it that disempowers us, and prohibits us from taking action in any situation? If you think about it, the answer is fear. Again, this fear may not be terror, or being deathly afraid. It may be something as simple as perceiving rejection, of something costing us more than it is worth, or an timidity that we might fail, and not succeed. But the fact is it is some form of FEAR!

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GOSPEL TRUTH #20

We are all motivated by some form of FAITH, or FEAR. The first is positive, the second is negative. One empowers, and one disempowers. One propels action, and the other inhibits action. One causes motion, the other causes inertia. One creates something new and different, the other destroys something, shies away from something, and keeps status quo.

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We are told more than once, “The just shall live by faith.” We are just and righteous if we are in Christ. It is something God does. It is not something we do. Being just and righteous before God is a state of being: it is who God declares us to be because of Jesus. We ARE just. Being just, our job description is to live by faith, not in fear. To do this we must live in God’s love: “Faith works through love.”

Living in God’s love generates faith, and dissolves fear. Instead, we live in self, and self generates fear. If we only go to God with our prayer lists, we are going in fear, not in faith. If we go to God for him alone, we are going in faith, not in fear.

Both faith and fear can be seen different ways, depending on the situation we are faced with. They can work against each other or together. For instance, why do we comb our hair, brush our teeth, or put on clothes? It is because, IN FAITH, we may feel we’ll be more attractive, appreciated, and better received by other people. Or, in the alternative, DUE TO FEAR, we may think we will not create a good impression, or we’ll be rejected by other people.

Faith and fear can be seen in different light, depending on the situation. Faith is good. Fear is not always bad. Fear can be good. But it is bad as we are applying the term here. Now consider the following:

	FAITH / GOOD:	FEAR / BAD:
	Gain	Loss
	Reward	Punishment
	Investment	Risk
	Pleasure	Pain
	Achieve	Fail
	Increase	Decrease
	Love/Appreciation	Hate/Anger
	Promotion	Termination
	Healing/Health	Suffering/Sickness
	Life	Death

All of life is motivated by some form of faith v. fear. Depending on the motivation, it can propel us or immobilize us.

See this: we move TOWARD something in faith, we move AWAY from it in fear. I belief we will most often choose the negative path over the positive path. In other words, we will AVOID something, due to fear, more often than we will APPROACH the same thing, due to faith.

How we live our lives, and how we react or respond, depends on how we PERCEIVE situations, problems and people. Reality isn’t always what we perceive it to be. The reality of life is about GOD, but we often perceive it is about US, especially if we read modern Bibles. Reality is gospel BELIEF, but modern instructors most often tell us reality is BEHAVIOR. As we have seen, belief produces behavior, but behavior does not produce belief.

Now let’s apply this to God. Do we approach God in faith, or do we avoid God due to some form of fear? We may not be in terror of God, or feel he will strike us with lightning, — but, how do you relate to God?

Do you approach him in faith, or avoid him in fear? Do you invest yourself in prayer, or do you shy away from praying because of prior unanswered prayer? Do you fear to risk more disappointment? In your mind, is God desiring to connect with you, or is he holding you at arm’s length? Is he glad to see you, or do you think he think, “Oh, here he comes again”? Paul says it is behavior (deeds) that make God seem like ‘an enemy in our minds’ to us (Col 1:21). He isn’t an enemy, but he can seem like it, in our minds, if we base life on BEHAVIOR.

Do you picture God as smiling at you, or frowning at you? Do you feel your relationship with God is increasing and growing, or declining? Is it pleasurable, or painful? When you think of life in God, are you in a state of health, or at least healing, or in a state of suffering or sickness? Do you feel God wants to prosper you, or hang you out to dry? Is the judgment seat of Christ about reward or punishment in your mind?

Our relationship with God effects every facet of our life — including our relationship with everyone else. Thus God says, “The just shall live by faith.” If we live by faith, and God’s love generating it, life is positive: we are growing and in health. If we live in fear, then life is negative: we are declining, procrastinating or suffering. We are often in sickness, and going to him to seek healing.

Living in God’s process, the gospel generates us in love and faith, no matter what we are doing. Look at yourself. (1) Do you advance toward God, people, problems and situations, or (2) do you retreat from them?

Seeing things this way will cause you to observe and assess if you are living more in faith — or in fear.

God empowers us to change how we perceive life.

He calls it faith, and says, “The just shall live by faith.”

We should live by The Tree of Life, not The Tree of Knowledge.

What generates us, or inhibits us is driven by our perception.

If perception is founded in fear, we retreat.

If perception is founded in faith, we advance and grow.

If we allow the gospel to transform us by the renewing of our minds, we start perceiving things differently. The most prevalent thing that changes fear into faith is the love of God.

Now we have come full circle from where we began. And it is a circle — a never ending circle. Love produces faith, and then faith produces more love, and then love produces more faith, and then faith produces more love. It just keeps growing and building.

God’s perfect love casts out all fear,
and faith works through God’s love.

The more we live in God’s love, the more we live in faith.

The more we live seeking God’s love, the more we live in fear.

Gospel truth is the only thing that keeps us living in God’s love.

How do we know God loves us today — despite what we did last night, or last week? “If God did not withhold his own Son from us, will he not also freely give us all things?” God has given us everything he has to give, even his entire Kingdom. You already saw this.

We must learn to know and receive God’s love, like manna, each and every day. We must remember it does not depend on us, but it depends on Jesus. If we are in Christ, Father loves us as much as he does his Son Jesus (John 17:23). We must keep ourselves in this love (Jude 21).

If we live in fear, we react rather than we respond.

If we live in faith, we respond rather than react.

If we live in fear, life controls us.

If we live in faith, we control life.