Friday, January 21, 2005
Mark 6:50 Immediately He talked with them and said to them, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid."
NO FEAR!
Have you ever asked yourself the question, "Why am I afraid?" or "What am I afraid of?" Have you ever wondered what the cause of fear is? If we look to Scripture we find that the cause of fear is sin. Think back to what Adam said to God after the fall into sin. He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." Adam was afraid! Because of the fall into sin it is part of our sinful human nature to be afraid. That is what sin has done to us.
Fear was the feeling that Adam and Eve first felt after the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden. When sin entered the world, fear came with it. Since that time, fear has become something that all people live with, whether they like it or not.
During the season of Epiphany we have the opportunity to see the power of Jesus over all things. We have the opportunity to go back in time and see the power of God, manifested in the God-man Jesus Christ. We can see Jesus heal the man with a withered hand, and the woman who had a flow of blood for over 12 years. Through the Scriptures we have the ability to see Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, cast out spirits from the young and the old, feed thousands of people with just a handful of food.
In these verses from Mark, we are blessed to see Jesus walk on the raging Sea of Galilee and calm the storm with His almighty power. Today we hear the Words of Jesus telling us, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid." Fellow believers, Jesus is the cure for our fear. He is the reason that we no longer need to fear anything -- because we know that He will always be there for us. Because of Jesus, now we can say that we have NO FEAR, not even of death itself. For those who believe on Jesus and what he has done -- physical death is a wonderful thing, and actually gives us the opposite of death.
Through Jesus we are given life -- eternal life in heaven with Him! 