Today @ The Gathering – February 15

Icon_small1Today at The Gathering we continued in our current series, “The Power To Prevail,” with part two, “Turning Fear Into Faith.”

We live in a time gripped by fear.  And because fear is so prevalent and so destructive, we tend to think all fear is bad.  The truth is, fear can be a very good thing. Fear is the thing that keeps you out of the middle of an Interstate, keeps your hand off a hot stove, or sends you to an emergency room when you have chest pains.  It’s not the fear that’s bad.  It’s what you do with it.  That’s why, with the power to prevail, you turn fear into faith.

We talked about the destructive power of fear to give us a backdrop against which to understand the power of faith.  We said bad fear does three things:

1.    Fear paralyzes meaningful action. That’s why people don’t spend money and take vacations when they can fully afford it and plan to do it, but they are afraid of what’s ahead.  Now some of that fear is prudent and wise, but much of it is foolish and faith-less.

2.    Fear sterilizes meaningful creative thinking. The greatest services, institutions, and products in our country were created during down times, not up times.  It’s when the money is low and everyone is quitting and jumping ship that the greatest opportunities arise through creative thinking.  Innovation only happens in the face of great need.

3.    Fear polarizes meaningful collaboration. This is probably the worst effect of bad fear because it keeps us from people.  It makes us label people, and labels are libels most of the time.

What does faith do?  What faith does is easier to describe than what faith is.  Doctrinal and theoretical definitions of faith are meaningless, just like trying to define love.  We may not have acceptable definitions of either love or faith, but we definitely can recognize them when they are in operation. So here are the eight things that faith does:

1.    It stretches my imagination.
2.    It expands the scope of what’s possible.
3.    It answers my prayers. The Scriptures tell us that if we believe, we will receive what we ask for in prayer.  The truth is, most of us don’t believe it.
4.    It attaches meaning to the mundane.  Too many of us are waiting for the big event, the great moment for our ship to come in.  There are no defining moments in life other than those linked together by the mundane moments.
5.    It raises my expectations.
6.    It rewards my everyday efforts.
7.    It overcomes my adversities.
8.    It renews my connection to hope.

If you want to know more, check out the podcast.

Also check out the Power To Prevail web site and sign up for the free downloads.  If you’re too busy to read a book, you can download and listen to the entire book read by me, the author.

Also check out our Call to Prayer on March 9th.  Maybe you’ll want to be part of this historic event.

Here’s what I want to leave you with.  What God wants to do for you, He waits to do through you.  Maybe that’s why you haven’t seen the hand of God in your life; because you’ve been sitting on the couch and waiting for Him to be your butler or waiter, rather than your Savior.

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