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Faith over Fear? Live it ~ In His Word 3-2-2026
Do not be overcome by evil but over come evil with good.
Romans 12:21
In Romans 1 Paul pleads with us to give ourselves to Christ,
body and soul! He encourages us to reciprocate for the good things God has
done.
What has He done?
John 3: 16 for one thing! Because He loved us Jesus came and
died for us.
He only asks that we live holy and acceptable to the Lord,
and that is because God is holy He wants us holy!
So to do this we are not to copy the world, nor worry about the
cares of the world. So, whatever is going on in the world, don’t worry about
it! God is still in control! He is still on the throne!
In doing this not worrying and not copying the people in the
world with stress, worry, anxiety, etc., we need to focus on God, because He and
His Word will bring us the answers we need. As we do this focusing on the Word
we will be transformed from our old person to our new person. That one who is
living a changed life that is not full of fear, or all attitude over things that
we just don’t like, or people who behave different ways than we think are
right, self-righteous. When we are self-absorbed it’s easy to think we are
better than others, but when we are focused on God and His Word the guidance we
find may make us smart! I mean the kind of smart that we say, “ oh yikes that smarts!”
when we get stung or something. When God straightens our lives out we can
sometimes feel it! Its not always fun. But din order to be transformed we have
to get rid of that fear, we need to get rid of the ‘all about me’ attitudes and
humble ourselves before God Himself. We will become those carrying people who love,
are meek and understand that we do not deserve anything, but God chose to give
us love, life and peace, all this! Just because He loves us. God gave us what
we don’t deserve.
Because of this He has given us authority, privilege, and guidance
to dee what we have been chosen by God to do, He transforms us to become who we
should be.
We have been given this new life to trust God; to get us
through things that are hard. To change us from glory to glory but not our
glory His!
To trust God because we are not better than all those other
people out there, (there but the grace of God go we, after all). Verse 3 of the
same chapter tells us this! Don’t think yourselves better than we really are
because our honest evaluation is only measured by the faith we have been given.
We are a part of the team, the body , the group family of
God. Our part in this adventure with Christ is to do His will with the gifts or
talents He has given to us to use for His glory. But we have to remember it is
not about us! We are all connected. All Christians are the Church, the body of
Christ. Sure each of us is special and has certain talents or gifts, but God is
the one who reminds us that this is all because He granted us Salvation, because
He loves us, because we listen to Him via the Holy Spirit we can overcome with Him.
So, if He gives us the ability to speak publicly; speak up! Verse
6 in the same chapter tells us Do it, do not hold back from what God tells us
to do. If he gives you the skills to teach, teach, if He gives you the skills
to prophesy then do that. Do your best to live according to God’s approval not
mans. If your gift is encouragement then encourage, vs 7-8 shares a lot of
gifts . We need to use what He made us to use. Serve, encourage, teach, preach,
etc., its all as unto the Lord because it is for the Lord.
Don’t just pretend to serve, or claim what you don’t do but be
real. And really love on people don’t just say ‘love you’ but really mean it! Love
is God, and God is love, so don’t use Him to be deceptive to others. Take your
ability serious! God gave it to you to be used by you. He is with you in it! So
yes you can talk about it Jesus if He gives you that gift!
Be bold, be patient in trouble, be prayerful continually
focusing on what God wants you to do with your gift whatever it is! Bless those
who come against you, or persecute you for doing what God wants, what is good
and right. When people come at you, and they will if you are standing up in
this world with your faith, Pray for them! Do not be afraid! God is with you in
all that He gives you to do. 14-15 it tells us to be happy with the happy, have
empathy, and weep with the weeping but use it to show that God loves them and
you do too. Don’t fake it till you make it, be real!
Most of all we need to try to live in harmony, no wait, it
does not say ‘try’ it says just do it! Live at harmony with one another, nope! With
all people! You can live in harmony and still disagree with their words,
thoughts or lives, just don’t push the buttons, share Jesus and the Word and
let it do its work.
Remember we need to remember that if someone is rude, or
jerky to us we don’t need to get the revenge, because God will take care of
that too!
In verse 16 it says
to live at peace with everyone the best that you can. God knows that there are
people who wont let you live in peace, do the best you can and again, let Him
take care of the people. We are to be kind, feed, clothe, bring the gospel to them
and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work. We cannot force anyone to follow
after Jesus, we can only do like He says, and do not be overcome by evil but
over come evil with good. God is good! Allow Him to do the work. Our part is to
scatter the seeds of love, life and salvation through the Word, and our lives
being lived according to the Lord and His Word, in Jesus’ name.
He will take care of the rest.