Thursday Encouragement #126 — We Do NOT Have a Spirit of Fear!

Welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He and He alone is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

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Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:

And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

1 Samuel 17:26

Note: I will finish the Psalm 119 series that I’ve been working on. I’m just taking a pause for this week. And, this is a vent post. I saw something on Twitter and it devastated me, and now I feel totally frustrated. You can skip this post if you are not in the mood for a vent session.

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Two days ago I read a Twitter conversation between several professing Christians and it made me VERY sad.

The conversation was about COVID-19 and the frustration with non-mask wearers, and the fact that the Pro-Life argument needs to be beyond abortion. These people are tired with Christians who talk about abortion, but disregard life that already is. They also discussed how scary things are for those who have preexisting conditions. As I read through the thread, I became sadder and sadder because it became very obvious that these Christians have fallen into a spirit of fear. To these people, COVID-19 is clearly bigger than God.

Should we have a healthy respect for COVID-19? Absolutely. Clean your hands! Get some sunshine. Eat healthy. Get sleep. When you are around friends and family who are at higher risk for illnesses, mask up. If there is a mask rule at the shopping center you want to frequent, mask up. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, give to God what is God’s. But should we be the kind of fearful that makes COVID-19 bigger than God? Should we react in anger when a healthy person chooses not to wear a mask? Should we yell and scream at people who are doing things differently? Should we shame them on social media? The answer is “NO.” When we do this, we prove to non-Christians everywhere that we really aren’t strong in our walk with God.

As a side note, there are several medical reasons why an adult and/or child cannot wear a mask. Before judging others, we need to consider that maybe, just maybe, that kid or adult who isn’t wearing a mask isn’t doing so to anger you. My daughter can’t wear a mask because of her seizures. She’s not ignoring the mask rule to bother you. She is doing it to survive. But I digress … let me get to the point!

The very first thing that popped into my head as I was reading through this Twitter thread was David vs. Goliath. In the popular Biblical story, Israel is at war against the Philistines. In 1 Samuel 17, Goliath challenges any Israelite warrior to a duel. Goliath is a giant. In the Bible it states, “…Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span” (1 Samuel 17:4b). Scholarly estimates put Goliath between 9 and 11 feet tall. That’s pretty tall! And, not only was he tall, but he was a pretty murderous guy, too! So, I can appreciate why people might have been afraid of Goliath.

After 40 days of taunting, however, still no one was willing to fight Goliath. Then David enters the scene. He asks, “What’s happening?!” So his brothers tell him — “Scary Goliath has asked for one Israelite to fight him.” David looks at the Israelite army — an amassed group of massive warriors — and he is absolutely dismayed. “You are afraid of that guy?!” Then David goes out, fights Goliath, and wins. Why does David win? Because the Living God, the Lord of Armies, is on Israel’s side, and David believes this 100%.

I was devastated by the Twitter thread because it was pretty clear that COVID-19 has become Goliath and these Christians are the Israelite army shaking in their boots. They can say all day long they believe in God, but I don’t see it. There it was in black and white — COVID-19 is bigger than God.

I’m not trying to shame anyone. I am not trying to judge anyone. However, I do feel that in these days there is a large group of people who call themselves Christians who have become the deceived Christians we hear about in the New Testament. They have bought into the fearmongering of main stream media and main stream society, and they fully believe it is OK to publicly shame people who are refusing to make COVID-19 their Goliath.

God is BIGGER than EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. Nothing is bigger than God. If you believe in God, then He is by your side. Every single one of us who claims to be a Christian should be like David. We should see God by our side in every single situation no matter what. What is the worst that could happen to you? You die?! And, then you go to Heaven to be with Jesus. Is death awful? Yes! It’s unnatural and devastating. Nobody wants to leave their loved ones behind. But death is not something we should fear.

Fear is a thing. It’s real. I get it. But if you proclaim Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you need to get over your Goliath and trust in God, preexisting conditions and all. People are watching us. They are waiting for us to fail in our Christian walk so they can continue to justify their sinful lives. When we Christians look just like the world, we have failed — we have failed God, and we have failed all those people watching us.

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NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?

Check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

Becca @ The Becca Files

Gina @ Stories by Gina

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes

Andi @ Radiant Light

Leslie @ Words of Hope

Claudia @ Claudia Moser

Keneesha @ Women Loving God’s Way