Confronting Fear

George

This Sunday I told two stories about confronting fear: one was the biblical story of Hezekiah as the powerful Assyrian army threatened to flatten Jerusalem and carry its people into exile.  The other was the story of my nephew George.  It is the story of how my brother and his wife stood with courage when the doctors said there was no hope.  But there is always hope when you choose to trust God.

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Assaulted by Fear

One of our enemy's favorite weapons is fear.  It is an ancient weapon that is still effective and in full force against us today.  With the strongest army the world had ever known surrounding his city, building siege ramps and making threats, King Hezekiah's trust in God went toe-to-toe with fear.  When we look at the tactics the Assyrians used to try to intimidate Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem into abandoning their trust in God, we can recognize how those same tactics are deployed against us today.

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Meanwhile, Back in the North...

One lady told me when she was leaving this morning, "Well, you really preached your heart out today." She was right. This was a very personal message for me. When I say, "We are not taking sin seriously enough," I'm not using the "pastor 'we'" when I really mean "you." God has been showing me a lot about myself, and I shared some of that this week.

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Fighting "Spiritual Gravity"

So how is your week going?  Are you carrying out all that you hoped to carry out during that moment of clarity on Sunday morning (or the last time you listened to God)?

Despite all of our efforts to hear from God and our best intentions to conform our lives to His way, we are always fighting what I'm calling "spiritual gravity"; physical gravity constantly pulls you toward the earth, but spiritual gravity pulls you back into the world.  Gravity isn't an issue when you're falling--it can even be fun.  The problem is the landing.

Hezekiah struggled with spiritual gravity in his life after the "high point" of his healing and the miraculous sign given to him.  We can learn from his life why it is so important to learn to fight spiritual gravity every day of our lives.

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