March 28, 2021
Dear ones, we are now one year into the coronavirus and God has been faithful. The following is a reprint of From the Pastor’s Desk for March 22, 2020.
“All we have to fear is fear itself” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32 President of the U.S.A). How right President Roosevelt was then, and how true that statement is today. For many, and that includes some believers, the fear of the coronavirus has literally petrified them and they are incapable of acting in a required or expected manner. Fear has traumatized them.
How many times in scripture does the Lord Jesus tell His followers to “fear not”? Answer: Enough for us to get the message. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (wisdom)” (2 Timothy 1:7). Paul mentions here three characteristics of the believer that will help us overcome our fear of the coronavirus or any other malady: Power, love, and a sound mind (wisdom). These are available to us because the Holy Spirit resides in us. Fear, my brothers and sisters, is a negative faith. Fear says the worst is going to happen, while faith says God has everything under control. Faith says: “For He will save you from the trap of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you and completely protect you with pinions and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and a wall (Psalm 91:3-4 AMP). Fear questions God’s word and the God of the word. “So faith comes from hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the [preaching of the] message concerning Christ (Romans 10:17 AMP).
Dear Ones, all we have to fear is fear itself.
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Again, how faithful is our God!
Pastor J. Amos Jones