Are you afraid of all that’s happening in our world today? Has a pastor stirred you up? Has a web site instilled anger, frustration and fear in your heart? Has YouTube so totally disrupted your simple love relationship with Jesus?
You’re not alone. Many have made these mistakes.
Add to that the many changes happening globally one after another after another.
COVID-19. Mandates. Isolation. Vaccines. Requirements. Globalism.
On and on the list goes. What are you supposed to do?
1. Don’t be afraid. The Lord Almighty is on the throne. He is your stronghold in times of trouble.
Nahum 1:7 (NKJV) “The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.”
2. Don’t be easily influenced in your vulnerable condition.
Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV) “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.”
3. Don’t worry about tomorrow (or wild conspiracy hypothetical theories)
Matthew 6:25–34 (NKJV) “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
4. Don’t bite and devour other Christians who think differently than you.
Galatians 5:15 (NKJV) “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!”
5. Do trust in the Lord will all your heart.
Proverbs 3:5–8 (NKJV) “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.”
6. Do love God and your neighbor!
Luke 10:27 (NKJV) “So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
7. Do Go about preaching and teaching the Kingdom of God!
Luke 10:3 (NKJV) “Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.”
8. Do fear God more than you fear any man.
Matthew 10:28 (NKJV) “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
It’s easy to be troubled in these troubling times but God is faithful. No matter what happens, He will keep His promises to us. Our greatest need is to abide in Christ. Energy spent elsewhere is wasted.
Are you wasting your time worrying?
Are you wasting your time plotting?
Are you wasting your time fear mongering?
But pastor what about socialism, the constitution, death camps, the New World Order? Seriously, you’re being distracted away from what’s really important. Repent and get back to your first love relationship with Jesus. The matters of the world have taken you off course. The lost world needs you!
Revelation 2:4–5 (NKJV) “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”
Surrendered those matters to the Lord and choose to do your Father’s business. Again.
John 8:29 (NKJV) “And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”
I needed this today.
Thank you Pastor Ed I so needed this encouragement trusting in the Lord thank you and God bless you and your precious family. Keeping you all in prayer and our church family .
The world is going to be what it is. Yes I got my shots but it wasn’t out of fear. I will live my life for Jesus the best I can it’s all I can do. I refuse to get sucked into politics conspiracy theories or any other thing that’s going on right now. I love Jesus, he saved me and I’m thankful. I pray for this nation and this world daily but I know God is in control. I will also continue to pray for all of His children.
Thank you. Pastor Ed Taylor
Redemption secured. Purpose unknown. Journey a blessing. Destination promised.
Thank you Pastor Ed, while I was in the hospital, God spoke to me about disabling all who I had subscribed to. I did which brought me freedom. I realized I have no control over what is going on in our world. What I listened to was positive information yet, I was adding too much information. God is is definitely in control and He knows what is happening. I needed to get back to Jesus. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank so much Pastor Ed Taylor.
God is sovereign . He definitely in control. Hallelujah!
Thank u Jesus.
Amen! And Amen!
Thank you pastor Ed, I so appreciate God using you to reach out to me, I needed to hear this and lean more on Gods words.
I needed this. I think a LOT of people need this. …will meditate on these truths. Thanks Pastor Ed!!!
Another word from God when worry begins to dominate:
“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8
AMEN
Thank you, Pastor Ed, for always being on time with these messages. I need to hear God’s words all the time. I pray that God be with all of us, but especially our Pastors, who work so hard to keep us uplifted in His Word and Name! Thank you, our Awesome God for being our Constant! Amen!
Thank you.
Thank you for your encouraging message!!!
I agree! We do need to be about the Father’s business – but what exactly does that mean? I understand that to mean that I am to share God’s values, principles – essentially His truths, including the gospel – with co-workers, neighbors, teachers, school board members, Walmart cashiers, legislative representatives, etc.
I fear that many believe keeping our eyes on Jesus and being about the Father’s business, means we pray but we don’t get involved. We don’t tell our legislative representatives that we will not tolerate teaching our kids how to have same sex relations; that there is anything other than male and female, and the list goes on. We lost the battle for the Lord’s principles a long time ago and our children are reaping the consequences.
In John 17:15, Jesus prayed to the Father and said, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” He did not tell us to disengage. God reaches the lost in this world through us! The hope of our world is Jesus in us! He wants us to stand up for all that He represents.
I think of Joseph, Daniel, Nehemiah, and, of course, Esther. In the beginning Esther was afraid of going before the governmental leader of the day, King Ahaseurus, to represent her people for fear she would be killed. Thank goodness for her wise uncle, Mordecai who told her: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
I think it is pretty clear that we are here for such a time as this! We need to stand up. But how do we do this when we are walking in sin? We are afraid; we lack self- control by allowing our emotions to rule what we do; we are not walking in the Spirit; we have opened the door to the enemy who is doing a good job of destroying us from within. We need to do what scripture tells us to do. In Acts 17:11 we read concerning the Bereans, that “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” We should be doing the same thing today. Listen then compare against scripture.
We need to repent and obey the Word of God:
o We need to let “our light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify our Father in heaven.”[ Matthew 5:16].
o “We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” [Ephesians 1:3] We need to act like we believe this.
o We have the Holy Spirit in us with the full complement of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control. [Galatians 5:22-23] Let us walk accordingly.
o We need to get up and put on the full armor of God![Ephesians 6:10-20] We are in a battle. Did we think we were going to be unscathed by this world?
o We need to be exercising our spiritual gifts to edify the church [1 Peter 4:10, 1 Corinthians 12:7] and keep the enemy from sewing so much confusion.
o We have The Way, The Truth and The Life [John 14:6] in us. Could we have asked the Lord for wisdom on what to do about the vaccine? Proverbs 3:5-8 gives us the answer: “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths . 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. 8 It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.” There is still time to do just this!
o We need to pray for boldness and then get up and go to work.
This is what I believe it means to be about the Father’s business.
I couldn’t agree more.
We are in this world but not of it.
Jesus is the great physician, I lean on him, not our government and what they tell us to do. God is in control…..trust HIM and have faith.
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