Showing posts with label anxiety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anxiety. Show all posts

Thursday 4 February 2010

Fearing the right person


"We fear man so much because we fear God so little."
- Unknown

I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.
- Martin Luther

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith;
and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.
- George Müller

"In Jehovah’s promise I can jubilate,

In God I will praise his word,
In God I have put my trust;
I shall not be afraid.
What can mere man do to me?
I will not fear what flesh can do to me
Psalm 56:4

“In God (I will praise His word), In Jehovah I will give praise to His word,
In God have I put my trust and hope,
I will not be afraid; What can man do unto me?”
Psalm 56:10-11

I say with faith, You Lord are my helper and my ally.
I have to fear nothing. What can a human do to me?
Give that my faith in You can radiate and give appetite to others to reach You also.



Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Vrees hebben voor de juiste persoon
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2013 update:

03.365 (02.08.2009) Faith
03.365 (02.08.2009) Faith (Photo credit: hannahclark)

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Monday 29 June 2009

When discouraged facing opposition


It can be easy to become discouraged when facing opposition in our ministry. Here are a couple of things which can help:

Knowing that the opposition we may face in relation to sharing Bible truths means that we are on the right track:
"You will be objects of hatred by all people on account of my [Jesus'] name; but he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved." (Matthew 10:22)
"If they have persecuted me [Jesus], they will persecute you also." (John 15:20)

Jesus and many other faithful ones of Jehovah have suffered far worse than mere harsh words. But when you think of it, what can Man do to us?

"And do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Ge·henìna." (Mt. 10:28)
"Happy are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, since the kingdom of the heavens belongs to them. Happy are you when people reproach you and persecute you and lyingly say every sort of wicked thing against you for my sake. Rejoice and leap for joy, since your reward is great in the heavens." (Matthew 5:10-12)


What moves one to share Bible truths? Someone once said, "Preaching merely out of obligation becomes burdensome in time." If our motivation is the natural desire to share the wonderful, life-saving knowledge that we have learned with others, then it doesn't become burdensome at all.  Love for God is a primary reason why we share in the ministry, and truly being like Jesus includes being moved by compassion to preach and teach. (Matthew 22:37-39) Jesus' loving compassion for people was a key motivation for his sharing the good news with them:
"Well, on getting out, he saw a great crowd, but he was moved with pity for them, because they were as sheep without a shepherd. And he started to teach them many things." (Mark 6:34)
"But the crowds, getting to know it, followed him. And he received them kindly and began to speak to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those needing a cure." (Luke 9:11)
"This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ." (John 17:3) 

Here are some scriptures that have helped me with discouragement in the past:

"Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let YOUR petitions be made known to God; and the peace of God that excels all thought will guard YOUR hearts and YOUR mental powers by means of Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:6,7)
"Trust in Jehovah with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding. In all your ways take notice of him, and he himself will make your paths straight." (Prov. 3:5,6)

"Throw your burden upon Jehovah himself, and he himself will sustain you. Never will he allow the righteous one to totter." (Psalm 55:22)
"Those who are hoping in Jehovah will regain power." (Isaiah 40:31)

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Come ye yourselves apart ... and rest awhile (Mark 6:31)

"Come ye yourselves apart ... and rest awhile" (Mark 6:31)

WHAT loving consideration for his disciples is suggested by these words of Jesus! They had been engaged in the work of the Gospel - preaching, teaching and healing - and had returned to the Lord to tell him of their experiences. But "there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat". So Jesus suggested they should go elsewhere to seek quietude and rest.

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven", says the Preacher. Rest and recreation (i.e., re-creation) are essential to human well-being, whether on the physical or spiritual plane, and Jesus taught his disciples a very practical lesson in this respect in the incident recorded by Mark.

"Come ye apart and rest awhile! "Christ's advice is perhaps more needed to-day than ever before. The world is too much with us: it is well-nigh impossible to escape its insistent influence or find a quiet retreat free from its fret and turmoil. Many of us seek relief on holiday; but even in the solitude of the hills or in the wide expanse of the moors, the ubiquitous aeroplane intrudes, shattering the sense of seclusion and linking us again with man's unceasing endeavour to subjugate the physical universe.

How, then, can we come apart and rest awhile? There is no quietness or peace associated with the human world around us: stress, anxiety, clamour and warfare are its characteristics: we seek in vain in that direction. But one of old confidently tells us of a source of peace which he had discovered:

The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul (Psa. 23:1-3).

Here then is what we desire and seek: pleasant pastures, the waters of quietness, and refreshment for the soul: sought out and made accessible to us by the Shepherd of Israel. And does not His Son reveal similar consolation? Jesus, the good Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep, invites us: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matt. 11:28).
Shepherds Crag
Shepherds Crag (Photo credit: Mikey Bean)


Rest unto our souls! That is our greatest need to-day and our most fervent longing: to be free from the anxiety which so easily possesses us; to banish the sense of unrest which so frequently consumes us; to secure that contentment of spirit which so readily evades us, and which only confidence in God can inspire. If we are to secure this rest unto our souls, we must learn of Christ: and when we are truly his disciples, he takes us apart unto a desert place - far from the crowded haunts of human life - and we rest awhile with him, forgetting in his serene presence the cares and anxieties of life, and the interminable struggle of flesh and spirit; so are we strengthened for further endeavour.

Each first day of the week we are granted in a very special sense the privilege of spiritual re-creation. Christ may be "known of us in breaking of bread", as he was to the disciples of old. It is essential, however, that we should come apart from the world with its restless comings and goings, and seek to find him who has promised to be with us when we are gathered together in his name. This is no easy thing to accomplish, for we are very definitely still in the flesh, and liable to be too readily influenced by the merely human aspects of the memorial service; often we determine its success or failure by the word of exhortation. Let us remember, however, that the essential feature of the memorial service is the breaking of bread: that alone is commanded; all else is subservient to it. In that ordinance we remember Christ, learn of him, and so find rest unto our souls.

Brother F.W. Turner
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Meditations - Chapter 7 - Rest Unto Our Souls

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2013 update:

And Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
As you* are going, make disciples of all the nations, immersing* them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:teaching them to observe all things whatever I commanded you* and behold, I am with you* all the days until the end of the world.
 Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20 MLV)

And he gave some to be apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists, and some, shepherds and teachers.These were done *for the equipping of the holy-ones, *for the work of the ministry, *for the building up of the body of Christ,until we all arrive to the oneness of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,in order that we may no longer be infants, tossed to and fro and carried around with every wind of teaching, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;but be truthful with love*. We may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, who is Christ;from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through what every joint supplies, according to the working in due measure of each individual part, that makes the growth of the body to the building up of itself in love*.

(Ephesians 4:11-16 MLV)

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