“It is reported that the [former] newspaper counselor, Ann Landers, received an average of 10,000 letters each month, and nearly all of them from people burdened with problems. She was asked if there was any one problem that predominates throughout the letters she receives, and her reply was the one problem above all others seems to be fear.”²

Fear, to one degree or another, is common to all mankind. People are afraid of innumerable things: grasshoppers, bugs of all kind, snakes, spiders, mice, the dark, closeness, intimacy, losing their health, wealth, happiness, friendships, the unknown, ad infinitum. Some people are even afraid of success and unconsciously set themselves up to fail. Others are so afraid of failure, they won’t step out or even attempt to fulfill their life’s ambition and goals.

The ancient king of Israel, King Saul was so jealous of David that he set out to kill him. David had a right to be afraid and undoubtedly was. But because of his enduring trust in God, he was able to say with confidence, “The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man [King Saul] to do me?” When our trust is in God, we can confidently say the same. I like the words of the unknown poet who said:

I would rather stumble a thousand times

Attempting to reach a goal

Than to sit in a crowd

In my weather-proof shroud

A shriveled and self-satisfied soul.

I would rather be doing and daring

All of my error-filled days

Than watching, and waiting, and dying

Smug in my perfect ways.

I would rather wonder and blunder

Stumbling blindly ahead

Than for safety’s sake

Lest I make a mistake

Be sure, be safe, be dead.

God has a specific goal and purpose for your life. It’s okay to be afraid, just don’t allow fear to control you. Commit and trust your life to God every day and he will be with you. Step out in faith to do what you know and/or believe God wants you to do with your life. Don’t waste your life—make it an investment in eternity.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that when I commit and trust my life and way to you, your Spirit is with me to guide and direct me in all that I am and do. Help me to discover my God-given life purpose, and give me the courage to step out in faith to become all that you planned for me to be, and to do all that you plan for me to do. And even when I am afraid, I choose to put my trust in you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Psalm 118:6 (NIV).

2. The Bible Friend. Cited in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations by Paul Lee Tan., Rockland, Maryland. © 1979.

Down through the ages since the beginning of time whenever God has a job to do, he has always chosen and started with a single individual. Think of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, Mary, John the Baptist, Peter, and Paul for example.

Robert C. Stone shared how, “In 1872, Dwight L. Moody attended an early morning meeting in a hay mow (the place they store hay) in Ireland. At the meeting he heard a man quietly say, ‘The world has yet to see what God can do with, and for, and through, and in, the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to God’s will.’

“Years later, Moody was seated high up in Charles Spurgeon’s tabernacle in London, and Spurgeon used those same words in his message. Moody bowed his head and prayed, ‘By the power of the Holy Spirit, I will be that man.’”

Moody was greatly used of God to win multiplied thousands to Christ and founded the world-famous Moody Bible Institute (MBI) in Chicago, a school that has trained many thousands for Christian service around the world. (By way of interest, I am a graduate of MBI.)

E M. Bounds said, “Men are looking for better methods. God is looking for better men [and women].” God will use every single person who makes him/herself available for Him to use, and he is still looking for dedicated people to stand in the gap today. Will you, too, in the words of D. L. Moody, say, “By the power of the Holy Spirit, I will be that man/woman?”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that your methods are people. By and through your power I want you to use me to stand in the gap to be what you want me to be and to do what you want me to do. Please use me to be a shining light in a dark world so that people, seeing Jesus in me, will want you for themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Note: For God to use you to help reach others with the gospel please consider becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus partner and help in an attractive, non-threatening way to share the love of Jesus and the message of God’s salvation with friends, family and contacts. For more information go to: https://learning.actsweb.org/people_power02.php.

1. Ezekiel 22:30 (ASV).

I read about a vessel discovered over a century ago among the icebergs of the Arctic ocean. In it was the captain, frozen as he was making his last entry in the log-book. The crew were also discovered—some in their hammocks and some in the cabin—all frozen to death. The last date in the log-book showed that for thirteen years that vessel had been moving among the icebergs, “a drifting sepulcher manned by a frozen crew.”

Someone suggested that there are some churches in a similar condition. Today’s Scripture talks about people who have a form of godliness but without its power. Certainly there are some churches and religions like that too. They have an outward form of godliness but are frozen in that, while they have the outward trappings of religion, they are out of touch with God and reality.

Jesus said: “For many are called, but few are chosen.”² That is, many are called by God but few prove themselves to be chosen ones, That is, only a small percentage of confessing Christians do anything tangible about God’s call to follow and serve him. Someone jokingly “translated” this verse to say, “Many are cold and a few are frozen.”

While millions of people around the world desperately need the gospel, most of us who call ourselves Christian give little for or do anything much about it. Nor do we give much to help in that less than three percent of Christians tithe of their income for God’s work. And even then the average church spends 95 percent of its income on itself. As the late Vance Havner said, “Our doctrine is sound—sound asleep.”

In the last few years we have seen a great increase in some of the worst kind of violence and terrorism worldwide committed by radical Muslims, all in the name of Allah. Let us not kid ourselves, their relentless goal is to kill infidels, namely: Christians, Jews, Americans and other Westerners, and also to rule the world with their religious-political ideology.

At the same time, at least in North America, we are seeing an ever-increasing amount of “Christian bashing.” Would-be opponents of the Christian faith are doing all in their power to destroy the very principles upon which western civilization has been built.

The only answer to combat evil is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and unless we the church, and we Christians (and even our governments) wake up and “smell the gunpowder,” I am afraid we will be witnessing an ever-increasing amount of violence and terrorism around the world.

Let us remember the words of Edmund Burke spoken over two centuries ago: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

More importantly, let us heed God’s Word that says, “‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”³

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please use me to be a shining light in the world’s darkness and do what I can to help spread your gospel message around the world. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Note: Please consider becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus partner and help in an attractive, non-threatening way to share the love of Jesus and the message of God’s salvation with friends, family and contacts. For more information go to: https://learning.actsweb.org/people_power02.php.

1. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV).

2. Matthew 22:14 (KJV).

3. Ephesians 5:14-16 (NIV).

It was during World War II when Great Britain’s back was against the wall defending herself against seemingly overwhelming odds with the unrelenting onslaught of Hitler’s military might, and the unyielding bombing by the German Luftwaffe.

Winston Churchill was asked to address the students at Harrow School, the school I believe that Churchill himself had attended as a student. The following is the speech that he gave that day:

“Never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”²

When it came to never giving up Churchill certainly practiced what he preached. His determined leadership helped win the war against Germany. And when it comes to God’s work, let us all be like the Apostle Paul who said about his work for God: “It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work [of telling his Good News to others] and so we never give up.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for the wonderful calling and privilege to be one of your witnesses during my lifetime. Help me to be an effective witness and never give up praying for lost loved ones, friends, and neighbors, and never give up letting my light shine for you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Note: Please consider becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus partner and help in an attractive, non-threatening way to share the love of Jesus and the message of God’s salvation with friends, family and contacts. For more information go to: https://learning.actsweb.org/people_power02.php.

1. 2 Corinthians 4:1 (TLB)(NLT).

2. Sir Winston Churchill, Speech, 1941, Harrow School.

I have read how, “while attending a university in London, Mahatma Gandhi became almost convinced that the Christian religion was the one true, supernatural religion in the world. Upon graduation, and still seeking evidence that would make him a committed Christian, young Gandhi accepted employment in East Africa and for seven months lived in the home of a family who were members of an evangelical Christian church. As soon as he discovered that fact, he decided that here would be the place to find the evidence he sought.

“But as the months passed and he saw the casualness of their attitude toward the cause of God, heard them complain when they were called upon to make a sacrifice for the kingdom of God, and sensed their general religious apathy, Gandhi’s interest turned to disappointment. He said in his heart, ‘No, it is not the one true, supernatural religion I had hoped to find. A good religion, but just one more of the many religions in the world.’”²

Let us remember that as children of God we are not called to do witnessing but to be Christ’s witnesses. Wherever we are, wherever we go, whatever we do—in all circumstances at all times we are being witnesses of Christ. I recall reading years ago the following words on a poster in the office at a college I attended.

The living truth is what I long to see,

I cannot live on what used to be,

So close your Bible and show me how

The Christ you talk about is living now.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to remember that as a child of yours, I am being a witness for you in all circumstances at all times. Help me to so live that my life will always be a good witness and be used to help win others to you. May people, seeing Jesus in me, want Jesus for themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Acts 1:8 (NIV).

2. Evangelical Illustration

“John Patton, in his book, From Ministry to Theology, relates the story of a rather green chaplaincy resident, naive to many of the pressures and pains of a teaching hospital. While on call one night, the intern was summoned to the room of a woman whose baby had been stillborn a few hours earlier. ‘We want our baby baptized,’ the young mother said, cradling her lifeless daughter, her husband at her side. ‘Her name is Nicole.’

“The intern didn’t know what to do, but asked them to come to the chapel a few minutes later. In the meantime he tried to find another, more experienced chaplain to take over, but to no avail. He was on his own and quite unsure as to how to proceed. He had not only professional uncertainties about what he had been asked to do, but theological qualms as well. Still, he knew he had to meet with grieving parents. He sketched in his mind something to say, hoping it would be appropriate to the moment.

“The young parents arrived at the appointed time, but the chaplain found he could not say what he had prepared. Instead, and almost without realizing what he was doing, he took a tissue, wiped at the tears in the eyes of the parents, then wiped his own tears and touched the tissue to the baby’s head and said, ‘Nicole, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ He said nothing else—the tears were more eloquent than words could have been.”²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me an understanding and tender heart so that I will always rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Romans 12:15 (NKJV).

2. Thomas R.Steagald, “More Eloquent Than Words,” Michael Duduit in The Abingdon Preaching Annual, 1995 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), pp. 316-317. Cited on www.sermons.com.

Perhaps you have read the story told by Coach Bertman, the successful athletic director at Louisiana State University. But it’s well worth a reminder in how it helps if we’re playing and/or working for someone else. Here’s the story as told by Michael Josephson in Character Counts.

“Coach Bertman emphasized the idea that his players were never simply acting for themselves. He reminded them: ‘You represent LSU, your family and your Maker.’”

On one occasion “he told a story about a young man named John who played football for Columbia University in the 1930s. Well, actually, John was on the squad because he had a terrific attitude, but he was a bench warmer who hadn’t been in a single game.

“During his senior year, John’s father died. When he returned from the funeral he asked his coach if he could start in the next game to honor his dad. The coach couldn’t refuse, but he warned John that it probably would be only for a few plays.

“To the coach’s surprise, John played so well that he was declared the game’s most valuable player. When the coach asked John how he was able to play at such a high level after just losing his father, John said, ‘You know, coach, my dad came to every game. You probably saw me walking with him holding his arm. That’s because he was blind. Well, I figure today was the first time he ever saw me play. I was playing for my daddy.’”²

I’m not going to argue whether John’s dad saw his son play or not. But it’s certainly true in that whatever we as Christians do, we’ll do it better if and when we do it as unto the Lord knowing that he sees all and that he keeps the final score.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, in all that I do, please help me to do it as unto you, so that I will always put forth my best effort to help others and to glorify you. And please help me to remember that I am never out of your sight. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Colossians 3:23 (NIV).

2. Michael Josephson, Character Counts. You can subscribe to Michael Josephson’s Character Counts inspiring weekly email at www.charactercounts.org.

Brett Blair shares how “Robert Fulghum, who wrote ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,’ says that he placed alongside the mirror in his bathroom a picture of a woman who is not his wife. Every morning as he stood there shaving, he looked at the picture of that woman.

“The picture? The picture is of a small humped-over woman wearing sandals and a blue eastern robe and headdress (sari). She is surrounded by important-looking people in tuxedos, evening gowns, and the regalia of royalty. It is the picture of Mother Teresa, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize!

“Fulghum said he keeps that picture there to remind him that, more than a president of any nation, more than any pope, more than any chief executive officer of a major corporation, that woman has authority because she is a servant!”²

According to Jesus’ words, Mother Teresa, at the time of her receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, was quite likely the greatest among all those surrounding her. Fortunately, there are multiplied thousands of others around the world serving God in humble ways with limited means, who, without earthly recognition or fame, are great in the eyes of the Lord. God doesn’t call many of us to fame and fortune, but he calls us all to be faithful in serving him with the gifts he has given to us. And if perchance, what we do gains us recognition, fame and/or fortune, let that be used to glorify God in the serving of others.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, whatever my calling, whatever my lot, whatever my circumstances, and whatever my gifting, help me to use all to serve others and glorify you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Matthew 23:11-12 (NIV).

2. “Giving,” Brett Blair at www.eSermons.com

It’s an age-old question that mankind has been asking since time immemorial: “Where did I come from? Why am I here? And where am I going?” In other words, “What is the purpose of life?”

In Western society, for vast multitudes the purpose of life is materialism, the accumulation of riches and material possessions that, without a deep spirituality, will ultimately lead to soul hunger and spiritual emptiness. Even Christians are not exempt from this hunger for material possessions. Results from a survey of 3,450 lay people and pastors by the National Council of Churches of Christ, conclude: “As people see it, the main thing blocking church support simply is a surpassing urge for more affluent living. Rival attractions seem to be gaining more of the religious dollar.”²

For hedonists the purpose of life is finding happiness and yet, more often than not, searching for happiness as an end in itself is like looking for the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Sadly, for multiplied millions in some third-world countries their purpose in life is simply struggling for survival, and that is understandable.

Perhaps the highest purpose of man is found in the Westminster Catechism which says: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

Referring to our souls, in Living a Life that Matters, Harold Kushner writes, “Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it.”³

If our chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, we will achieve this by “feeding our souls on spiritual food” and serving others that will, in turn, make our life matter. We will not have lived in vain. And eternity waits to welcome us home with our Savior’s words, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me love you with all my heart, mind and strength, and so live that my life will matter and make a difference in the life of many others for all eternity. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Luke 12:15 (NIV).

2. Adapted from Dean R. Hoge and David A. Roozen, “Some Sociological Conclusions about Church Trends,” in Understanding Church Growth and Decline. Cited on www.eSermons.com.

3. Cited by Michael Josephson in Character Counts www.charactercounts.org.