“God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
(II Timothy 1:7)
For many years dissidents in Eastern Europe lived under oppressive regimes that tended to promote a sense of fear. These people met in secret, used code words, avoided public telephones and published pseudonymous essays in underground papers.
In the mid-seventies however, Polish and Czech intellectuals began to realize that the constant double life had cost them dearly. Quite simply, they had lost the most basic sense of freedom and human dignity. By working in secret, always with a nervous glance over their shoulder, they had succumbed to fear, which in fact was the goal of their communist opponents all along.
So the dissidents made a conscious decision to change tactics.
“We will act as if we are free, at all costs.”
Defense Committee in Poland began holding public meetings, often in church buildings despite the presence of known informers. They signed articles, adding their addresses and phone numbers and distributed them openly in street corners. In effect the dissidents agreed to start acting the way the society should become. The authorities did not know how to respond. Sometimes they cracked down - nearly all the dissidents spent time in prison - and sometimes they watched with frustration bordering on helplessness.
Meanwhile this new approach emboldened the dissidents and they discovered that inner freedom gives sustenance even when external freedom is snatched away. Their daring philosophy spread to even other countries giving courage to the dissidents in China, Latin America and South Africa and they too were liberated. (Philip Yancey - Finding God in unexpected places.)
Dear friends, a fearful person organizes his or her life around a common perspective of fear. Whatever happens feeds that fear. Whereas a faithful person organizes his or her life around a common perspective of trust, not fear. He believes that despite the apparent chaos of the present moment, God does reign;
“Faith sees even the darkest deed of all history - the death of Jesus, as a necessary prelude to the brightest”, writes Philip Yancey.
satan tries to paralyze us with fear but let us boldly confess, “The One who is in me is greater than the one who is in the world”, and overcome Satan by faith in our Lord Jesus.
PRAYER:
Dear God, satan may try to paralyze me with fear showing me the complexity of the situations. Let me never succumb to him but let me boldly, and openly confess my faith in You. Help me to believe that a glorious crown follows the cross. Amen.
.jpg)
.jpg)