Faith Over Fear.

 We believe. However, I think we sometimes forget that we believe. How do the men and women Christ followers suffer all the way through torture, and still believe when my life gets tossed about with car troubles, health issues, future insecurities and I forget to believe? I have to word it that way because I do believe, I know I believe and I know Christ is helping my unbelief, so why do I forget? Why do I let myself get caught up in uncertainties? Why do I borrow the trouble of tomorrows possibilities? Why do I question the reasons for situations I know are in God's hands? I could use the excuse I do all that because I'm human and that is true. I'm extremely infallible in many ways, but I have a God who is greater than my sinful humanity. I have His promises. A person suffering severe painful torture near to death, in throes of agony beyond my grasp of truly comprehending and still their mouth rasps out whispers of praise to God not only for their own situation but that of their torturers is something I marvel at! That person is human with all humanities infallible ways as well, yet they choose faith over fear. Can I choose faith over fear? Is it a choice? It goes against so much in me, so much of my character, so much of my genetic make-up, so much of my tendencies, so much of who I am and have been since childhood. I was the little girl who still remembers being so frightened of Kindergarten that I could barely breathe. I remember scuffing the toes of my brand new school shoes in the dirt over and over being so nervous and being scolded for doing so. I was that little five year old that somehow found it too fearful to carry my nap blanket to school so my sister did it for me. That little girl grew into a fearful big girl, and that fear shifted and altered to meet new circumstances. That fear ebbed and flowed in different ways for different reasons. That fear was believed conquered through Christ but reared its ugly head to beat me down even as I cried out to be saved from its mental, emotional pain. Faith over fear.  Maybe it's a daily thing, or at times an hourly thing. Maybe it's a choice that isn't made all at once and declared but rather a choice made in situation after situation for the rest of my life. Faith over fear. Maybe the fear needs to be felt for the faith to rise up through outright choosing beyond all comprehension to believe. Faith over fear, maybe it is feeling the awful symptoms of fear and still believing even though the symptoms persist, my God is greater than those and they won't diminish my choice to believe my God will see me through all things, because HE strengthens me, I can't strengthen myself. Faith over fear, like so many things in our lives we are taught should be automatic, but aren't for us like we imagine they should be, we must choose deliberately and hold fast to in spite of all things contrary to having that faith. Faith over fear, Lord I believe, You, Lord, You help my unbelief. Lord help me to remember to believe. Faith over fear. You, Lord, conqueror of all, even death. By Your mercy and grace, through Your will now and forever. Amen.

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Articles on Romans by E. J. Waggoner Chapter 15 Excerpt

Romans 15:1-7

1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 

2 Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. 

3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written,  The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. 

4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 

5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus; 

6 that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

"How to Please Others. This is still further shown by the exhortation, "Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification." We are never exhorted to aid a brother to sin, in order to please him. Neither are we exhorted to close our eyes to a brother's sin, and allow him to go on in it without warning him, lest we displease him. There is no kindness in that. The exhortation is, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Lev. 19:17. The mother who would be so fearful of displeasing her child that she would not stop it from putting its hand into the blaze, would be exhibiting cruelty instead of kindness. We are to please our neighbors, but only for their good, not to lead them astray.

Bearing Others' Weaknesses. Going back to the first verse, we find this lesson still more strongly emphasized:  "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." "For even Christ pleased not himself." Compare this with Galatians 6:1, 2: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such on one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." In bearing the infirmities of the weak, we are fulfilling the law of Christ. But to bear another's burdens does not mean to teach him that he can safely ignore any of the commandments. To keep the commandments of God is not a burden; for "his commandments are not grievous."  1 John 5:3.

How Christ Bears Our Burdens. Christ bears our burdens, not by taking away the law of God, but by taking away our sins, and enabling us to keep the law. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Rom. 8:3, 4.

He Says "Come." One blessed thing in the service of the Lord is that he does not say, "Go," but, "Come." He does not send us away to labor by ourselves, but calls us to follow him. He does not ask anything of us that he does not himself do. When he says that we ought to bear the infirmities of them that are weak, we should take it as an encouragement, instead of a task laid upon us, since it reminds us of what he does for us. He is the mighty One, for we read, "I have laid help upon One that is mighty; I have exalted One chosen out of the people." Ps.  89:19. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Is. 53:4, 6.

Why the Task Is Easy. This is what makes it easy to bear one another's burdens. If we know that Christ bears our burdens, it will become a pleasure for us to bear the burdens of others. The trouble is that too often we forget that Christ is the Burden-bearer, and, being over powered with the weight of our own infirmities, we have still less patience with those of others. But when we know that Christ is indeed the Burden-bearer, we cast our own care upon him; and then when we make the burden of another our own, he bears that too."