Fear or Faith, or Fear & Faith?

Monday afternoon, October 22, 2007
Have you noticed that many of the people who claim to be living in faith are really living in fear? Have you noticed how susceptible many of those within the Body of Christ are to this deception? The truth is many believers are fully persuaded that faith and fear cannot coexist and, as a result, they are easy targets for the enemy’s deceptive techniques. Somehow, we must begin to realize that faith and fear do coexist and that they will continue to do so until we get Home—when faith becomes sight.
The pattern usually looks something like this: the believer has no problem trusting God for things like the sun rising in the morning, or the changing of the seasons, or the spring rains, even for justification, sanctification, and glorification; however, when it comes to trusting Him for things that might not be so certain, he has a very difficult time.
For example, I well-remember a group of ladies from a local home for drug and alcohol addicted women attending our church and being faced with receiving the Lord’s Supper. Their leader was very adamant that they could not participate because we use wine, as one of the elements, not grape juice. In his mind, for them to participate would mean that everyone of the alcoholics in the group would immediately begin craving alcohol and revert to their old ways of abusing it, thereby, completely defeating the purpose of the center. Yes, I understood his concern and, certainly, did not attempt to change his mind; however, I did wonder how he could so readily trust God for their justification, even their continued justification, but not trust Jesus’ words, when He said, “This is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remissions of sins”? If the wine of the Eucharist is, as Jesus indicated, His blood of the New Covenant, I seriously doubt that anyone need worry, as to its substance or it efficaciousness. I am willing to bet that no believer has ever turned back to abusing alcohol, as the result of drinking the wine of the Eucharist! As to non-believers: they aren’t supposed to be participating in the Eucharist anyway!
Yes, I know that some of you are thinking that he was just using common sense and protecting the ladies from their enemy (alcohol), and you would have done the same thing. And, yes, I know that some of you are thinking that I could have used some commons sense and offered them a different “table” and used Welch’s grape juice, instead of wine. All I have to say to that is this: Jesus could have done the same thing but He did not. I am absolutely confident that Jesus never even entertained the thought that the wine of the Eucharist—His Blood of the New Covenant—would somehow be looked upon as an abusive substance that should be avoided by alcoholics!
I could serve up many other examples for you to consider but let me, simply, say that oftentimes, when we say we are walking in faith, we are really walking in fear, and that fear robs us of some of the most incredible blessings of the Christian life. Furthermore, let me remind you that fear and faith do coexist in every situation of our lives, and, I might add, it is the fear that produces our desire for faith.
One last thing: it is fear, not faith, that causes us to attempt to manipulate things, so as to prevent what we fear from actually becoming reality. Just for the record: God is pretty much determined for the righteous to live by faith, even in the midst of fear.
Just thought I would remind us that He really is trustworthy, even when we are scared to death.