Feeding
This fresh set of Daily Devotions is being provided for our LCA/NZ family, friends and visitors to help us to keep our eyes on Jesus as we face unsettling times. They can be used by families and individuals as part of the LCA/NZ’s Church@Home resources to encourage us and build trust in our Heavenly Father during this season of uncertainty and physical isolation.
Apologies to Pastor Robin and Lis Stelzer for the incorrect byline (Linda Macqueen) in yesterday’s emailed devotion. (It was correct in the online post.) This glitch has now been fixed. For the record, today’s devotion is correctly ascribed to Linda Macqueen.
by Linda Macqueen
Click here for your printable verse to carry with you today.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2).
When all this started, I wondered why I was going all wobbly. I’d wake up with anxiety flooding through my chest, and my stomach was churning so much I couldn’t get down even a banana until lunch time. At night-time I’d be tossing and turning in bed, my brain on a spin cycle of worst-case scenarios. I was losing it.
I wondered why that was. I ran through my checklist. I trust in God, don’t I? Yes, tick. I know that I’m precious to him and he won’t ever abandon me. Yes, tick. I believe that in Jesus I am fully right with God and I have no fear of his judgement. Yes, tick.
So then, why was I all wobbly?
I recalled a great quote I’d found some months ago. It’s a two-picture collage. On the left is a snarling, salivating wolf, and under it the word ‘Fear’. On the right is a lamb tucked up safely in the arms of the Good Shepherd, and under it the word ‘Faith’. At the very bottom, there’s the question: ‘Fear or faith – which one will win?’
Answer: the one you feed.
I realised I’d been very busy feeding my fear (‘the things that are on earth’). I’d quickly become addicted to reading every news story I could find about the virus, as though somehow the more I knew the more I could control it. I was shovelling truck-loads of food into fear’s gaping mouth. It’s no wonder my fear was growing exponentially.
I stopped feeding it. I put it into lock-down. Now I allow myself one update a day about the virus, and I spend much, much more time feeding my faith (‘the things that are above’). I’m making time day and night to dwell in God’s word and I’m getting to know God again. When I pray, I’m staying still and quiet long enough to allow his peace to wash through me. I’m setting my mind on his promises, which no virus nor anything else in all of creation is able to shake.
What about you? What are you feeding: your fear or your faith?
My Father, forgive me for looking in all the wrong places for my security. Thank you for calling me back to you, the only safe place in all the world. Lead me to feed on your truth, and sustain me with your promises through the journey ahead. Amen.
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