A Weak Faith in the Face of Fear

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

Your faith in Christ is ultimately more determinative than your fears.

Just because you are terrified when you ride in an airplane, doesn’t mean that you’ll fail to get to your destination. Your fear has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on your objective safety or the certainty of your arrival. Your safety and the certainty of your arrival are totally dependent upon the competence of the pilot and the sturdiness of the aircraft. It is not your courage or faith that will land you safely at Boston Logan or LAX, but the pilot.

So it is with our faith in Christ. You may be overwhelmed with all kinds of fear and terror, and you may think “How can I ever be saved? I am such a fearful and pathetic Christian. How will I ever become the stalwart faithful Christian I’m called to be?” Well, the question is not how fearful you are. Even the best Christian is regularly plagued with all kinds of fears. Nor is the question how strong is my faith? Even the strongest in faith can be plagued by doubt. The question is, what is your faith in? Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ? Have you placed your life in Him?

You see, it doesn’t matter how absolutely terrified you may be on an airplane. Your faith and confidence in the plane may be ever so small compared to your overwhelming sense of fear. Yet, your fear will not in any way prohibit you from arriving safely at your final destination. Why? Because you are on the plane. You’ve submitted yourself to the safe keeping of the pilot.

My friend, if you’ve entered the vessel of Jesus Christ, then you can be confident, in spite of fear or failing that you will land safely in heaven, completely conformed to the image of Christ.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit….

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

~ Romans 8:1-4, 28-30 (ESV)