Hello friends, welcome to Embolden. I'm Chris Shatter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. Earlier this year I did a study with my ESG's on Elijah, and as usual God is using all of my life to teach me about standing firm in my faith and stepping forward in trust. And as I prayed to God to reveal my next steps here in my series, I kept hearing the phrase lessons from Kieran.
You see, Elijah had to spend a lot of time alone facing his own trials before he was ready for the big show. In that time, some of which was in an area called Kieran. He had to choose to either trust God's eternal plan for him or not. He had to remove so many well-honed cultural and religious thoughts of, quote, the way things are supposed to be, end quote, and instead see how God works.
And he had to decide to stand out amongst the crowd. And although my Kieran didn't last for as long as Elijah's or even as long as Jesus is in the wilderness, I learned some valuable lessons while commuting with the Holy Spirit. And in these next weeks, I'd like to share some of them with you, to hopefully help us realign our lives to be Christian lives, lived out for all the world to see, for our friends and neighbors and coworkers to be spurred to ask why we seem different. Friends, we can't keep wandering through the wilderness of this earthly world living up to its standards.
It's time to take our hard learned lessons from those seasons and put them to work for the glory of God. Today's lesson from Kieran, comes from Exodus 14, verse 13. Do not be afraid, stand still, and watch the Lord rescue you. Are you a panicker?
I unfortunately can raise my hand and say I still haven't fully removed panicking from my life. In my baby Christian and pre-Christian days, panicking in my world looked a lot like this. The bad news comes, I immediately pull back my finances, emotions, socializing, etc. And Mrs.
Fixit comes to live in my brain. How is I going to fix this overwhelming problem? And if fixing the problem was truly out of my hands, that would really throw me for a loop. And if it was a personal failure, I'd add a hefty dose of self-destain as in, quote, why in the world would you do that you stupid idiot, unquote, or this always helpful piece?
Of course this happened because you are a failure and no one even likes you. Surefire ways to solve any problem, right? I opened up my strong, concordance books the other day to see how many times the word fear appears in the Bible. It's two long pages and four tiny columns long of references to the word fear.
That doesn't include fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fearfully and many more. According to online sources, the words fear not show up about 140 times in the Bible. It seems God really wants to get a point across about how to handle our fears, and yet we still panic. Matthew 14, 28 through 30 is a perfect example of panicking.
Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come out to you on the water. Come, Jesus said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink cried out, Lord, save me.
From beginning to end of the Bible, we see people who literally have the hand of God reaching out to them, panicking. Isn't that what Adam did when God asked? Where are you? He and Eve freaked out and they hid.
The Israelites, after having God leave them night and day with clouds and fire and provide food from heaven, they freaked out and cried, we want to go home. Poor Peter, even with Jesus admonishing him just seconds prior to with, take courage, it is I. He takes his eyes off the Lord and onto his own feet and the world. So take heart, my dear friends, we are not alone.
But God, he still wants us to grow each day, each disaster toward him. You know, I've been rewarded by the world for what my own style of panicking looks like. I go into research and development mode. My computer key is a light with fire as I search for reasons and solutions.
I start problem solving how to save more money while imagining a giant victory guard into sustenance. I organize, make charts, create checklists, watch YouTube videos. And I forget to pray and be still. The world doesn't reward with peace.
Elijah himself with a study in two sides of this panicking problem. On one hand, he did as directed by God and told the king how his evil behavior would result in a drought. Then he seemed to go calmly to cure th ravine under God's direction. You see how God provides when we obey and are calm?
But after all this plus the amazing display of God's power and might on Mount Carmel, he suddenly panics. He runs away and hides in fear for his life. And God asks him, what are you doing here? Matthew 16, 8 through 9 shows the disciples panicking about food.
Quote, aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, you have little faith. Why are you talking amongst yourselves about having no bread? You still not understand? Don't you remember the five lows for the 5,000 and how many fasted fools you've gathered?
It's been a hard-fought lesson between Jesus and me about not panicking, about staying calm in the face of scarcity, whether that be finances, food, love, and even yes, toilet paper. But time and again, God asks us, what are you doing here? Don't you remember what I've done for you before? And so while in my own kirith, when another person suddenly showed up for lunch or dinner, I forced my thoughts back on him.
I kept calm and prayed. You will show up Lord. When I didn't know how 100 mini birdhouses we had to hand out at Bev's funeral would get painted. Little side note, she had planned to give them out at her wedding anniversary party this month, and asked, is it okay to give out party favors at funerals instead?
I prayed for help and a small army of women volunteered. When the angel volunteer who was planning the funeral reception called and said all the sunflowers she had ordered were lost, somewhere between California and Colorado, I prayed it would turn out just fine. And on the day of Bev's funeral, the church and reception looked so beautiful things to many hands. God started on me many years ago with the verse from Psalm 4610, Be Still and Know That I Am God.
It showed up everywhere, even on vacation while attending a church for Mother's Day. The gift they handed out, pens with that very verse. And when I can't sleep at night from worry, I repeat that verse over and over. Be still, don't panic.
God's got this. It wasn't until my time and kirith that I really finally got it. In times of great strife, panicking is never the solution, because peace and calmness are waiting for us. Friends, the Lord has so many better solutions for problems that we can't even imagine.
So why not just give every one of them no matter how small or large to him right now? We need to stop fearing the world and give glory to the only one we should fear with reverence and majesty, the Almighty God. What is your panic mode and what are you worried about right now that you need to give to God? I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Abolden Podcast.
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