Making Right Decisions - Fear

Making Right Decisions
Ephesians 4:26-27


I hope you are enjoying this series on Making Right Decisions...Yesterday we took a quick look at Greed and how it impacts us to not be genuine. Today we look at fear and acceptance.

• Fear is deliberating: Jesus actually spoke of fear in Matthew 6 when he said “don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or wear.” Right before that he told us we can’t serve two masters, God or money.

Fear of not having enough usually starts at a very young age, but it can happen at any age. We tend to take fears and habits with us when we receive Christ. These are the things Christ has set us free from, that we sometimes hang on to. That’s where the choice thing comes into play.

Example: When I was young my dad got very sick and was in and out for the hospital for over a year. We had very little. We were eating macaroni because it was cheap. I can remember our dog Pal, and don’t be grossed out because it was this bad. Our dog pal went to one of the neighbors, still don’t know how he got a good ham, the dog grabbed it and brought it home. My dad saw the dog chewing on the ham and went out and took it from him. He cut off were the dog bit it and we had ham. That affected me. Can you see how circumstances in our lives can move us toward false pretenses as a protection mechanism?

How we live and re-act to circumstances come from self-perseverance. So we choose what is more important at the time. Life ends up being a roadway on which your choices and God’s choices merge–the intersection of choice.

Let me give you another example. Your children learn early to put on false pretenses.  You ask your child, “Did you hit your brother?” And of course, wanting to escape the punishment that we fear, for me it was a beating, we quickly answer “no.” “Then, why is there a red mark on his arm?” “I don’t know.” “You didn’t have anything to do with that?” “Well, my fist may have accidentally run into his arm?” “In other words you hit him, right?” “It all depends on how you define the word ‘hit’.” There were times in my childhood were this was my strategy to put off the inevitable. How about acceptance issues?

• Acceptance: Have you struggled to be accepted? We often resort to deceit so that we’ll be liked, accepted and appreciated. We want to look good to others. This was one of the keys that led Ananias and Sapphria to do what they did in Acts 5. They wanted to be accepted without giving their all. God didn’t appreciate that and they paid the ultimate price for lying to Him. Learning to live for Christ means we are already accepted. We don’t have to do anything else to be accepted. God accepts us just as we are. That’s the position we get by being a child of God when accept Christ as our savior. If we don’t get this, this area of falsehood will become habitual? More tomorrow...you are loved!