Fears That Keep Us From His Presence
Luke 8:37
Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave
them, because they were overcome with fear. So He got into the boat and
left.
Jesus did many miracles when He lived on earth. One of those miracles
involved the deliverance of a demon-possessed man. The people of the
community witnessed this awesome demonstration of God’s power when
Jesus commanded the demon spirit to come out of the man and go into the
herd of nearby pigs. The man was healed and sat at Jesus’ feet.
You would expect the people who witnessed this to embrace Jesus as one
performing good deeds and to honor Him. The opposite was true. Instead,
they were overcome with fear. Why? Many of us respond the same way to
Jesus when He does an out-of-the-ordinary act among His people. We are
fearful because we have never personally experienced this before. So,
we draw wrong judgments. The result is that Jesus removes Himself from
us.
The Lord is able to do far exceeding above what we think. Jesus does
not remain in the places where there is fear of His goodness. It is
often subconscious fears that prevent us from going to a deeper level
with Him. The people in Gerasenes could not benefit from Jesus’
presence because of their fears.
Have you feared Jesus because of what He might require of you? Have you
feared that He might ask of you something you are not prepared to give?
Do not let your fears drive Him from your presence. His motive is
always love for His children. You can trust Him.
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Jeremiah was told by God to go down to the potter’s house and see how he made his pottery: ‘The jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so [the potter] crushed it into a lump of clay…and started over’ (Jeremiah 18:4 NLT).
Sounds a bit harsh considering we’re supposed to be like the clay. But, the potter crushed the clay in order to make something loads better out of it! Here’s the good news: life may have crushed you but you’re still in God’s hands! Your life may seem to be out of control today but in reality you’re still on the potter’s wheel - being stretched, shaped and moulded. ‘As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.’
One day a friend of Michelangelo saw him working on a piece of marble he’d found on a rubbish dump. When he asked Michelangelo what he was doing he replied: ‘There’s an angel inside and I’m going to bring him out.’ How good is that? From a rubbish dump piece of reject rock to a priceless work of art. That’s what our God does!
Hannah said ‘He raises the poor from the dust…To set them among princes’ (1 Samuel 2:8 NKJV).
AGAIN, you’re not born qualified; you become qualified by spending time with Jesus. So stay where God has you today and let Him keep working on you. Tomorrow you’ll be glad you did.
>>> A dose of faith from my friends =)
January 25th, 2008 at 2:54 am
I even heard something (I do not know if it is in the Bible) that Jesus is accused of being in league with the devil because He had the power to “command” the devil to go away (as what he did in Gerasenes).
I think that faith is the starting point for us to receive Christ in our heart. Without faith, we can continue in disbelieving the existance of GOD. Even if He makes thousands of miracles everyday…a faithless person will always find some ways of affirming his disbelief.
Faith in GOD creates a different perception to all of us because all the things in this world…no matter how mundane those are, will be miracles in our eyes.
Ishmael Ahab
http://theparadoxicleyline.blogspot.com