Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so
that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too (Deuteronomy 20:8).
Have you ever been
spooked by a rumor? Most of the things we worry about never happen, and of
those that do, almost none end up being as bad as we feared.
In Franklin Delano
Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, as the nation was sinking into the Great
Depression, he uttered these words: “The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself.” Those words have been repeated over and over, because of their simple
profundity and for the comfort and assurance they afford.
Fear is contagious.
Israel’s leadership didn’t want fear infecting the ranks of its volunteer army,
so anxiety was a legitimate reason for being sent home. Better to lose one
fearful soul than have panic spread to everyone else.
Fear can derail not
only a nation’s (or an army’s) forward momentum; it can do the same to a
church. So can negativity – one of fear’s byproducts. That’s why it’s so
important to speak positively. A careless word can do a lot of damage.
For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power
and love and self-control (NET, 2 Timothy 1:7). That means fear doesn’t get to tell us what to
do. May our words, and the attitudes from which they are spawned, always move
us forward and never hold us back.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
How can you encourage those
around you? Make a point of doing just that. Put it in your calendar.
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