Sinking with Fear

 

“Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost, ’ they said and cried out in fear.

Immediately Jesus comforted  them ,saying it was He. However, Peter asked to walk on the water also. Indeed, Jesus called him.

“Then Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus.  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and ,beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’

“Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him.” ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’ “-Mathew 14 : 25-32.

Many a time we start by noticing people do certain things that we feel we can do also. However,  in the course, we see the tumultuous wind rocking that situation. Then we fear and ‘begin to sink.’ Failure dawns.

You lose all the hope you had initially. You forget all that motivated  you to venture into that particular activity. You face  reality and fail to cope.  Failure to cope implies no other alternative but to begin to sink.

It could be in business. Once you begin to fear that you will make losses, you begin to sink. The whole business simply crumbles. Just like losing  sight of Jesus, instead of you to optimistically look at better ways of doing business and making more profit, you concentrate on why your business should fail. Certainly, it will sink.

It could be your marriage relationship that is faced by some windy rocky situation. When you fear that wind,  you begin to sink. Instead of focusing on the problem pay all your attention to the solutions of your marriage and it will stay afloat.

Some people who were not supposed to be in graves  at all died because they had  become fearful in various situations ; forgetting what had made them  live up to that time. Once a certain diagnosis was given to them, they lost all their hope. Fear had overwhelmingly  taken over. Some patients who have not written any wills start sharing their estate verbally right at the bedside!

When you see the wind, do not fear and lose faith. That is the time you are supposed to look at Jesus and demonstrate faith in Him as the savior of the world ; Indeed, your personal savior.

You should have hope and not  forget the  call to ‘walk on the water’ when you see the wind. In a precarious situation, that is when you are supposed draw closer to your saviour for salvation. Nothing shall separate you from the love of Christ. Do not fear at all. Have faith in God and the God-given victorious abilities  in all adverse situations.

Wise at Twelve

 

“And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast,” Luke 2:42.

His parents went with Him to Jerusalem.

“And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it,” Luke 2:43.

That was the situation. Come to think of it, the parents leave a twelve- year -old behind. How agonising! How worried!

In the modern world, once your child is missing, what haunts your mind is the worry of finding the kid murdered.

However, when the couple returned to Jerusalem, they found Him in the temple sitting in the middle of doctors…listening and asking questions. Amazing!

He did not wait until forty  before interacting with people in connection with His mission. He was only twelve.

Asking questions and listening involve thinking. This means a person should start young to be reasonable about his life. One should ask adults around and think of the future.

Starting young makes things easier concerning one’s purpose in life. It makes one avoid some obvious mistakes that may ruin his life.

Because of the lack of learning to be reasonable at a young age, most people start by being delinquent. By the time they realise that they have a life to lead, some already have HIV and AIDS, or are drug addicts and probably in prison serving lengthy sentences.

Many  people have died prematurely because of making foolish choices. Trouble could be avoided by learning to sit with wise adults at a young age ,listen and ask questions.

Some people have pursued certain careers ignorantly. By the time they realise that they could be better elsewhere, it is too late. Some end up being fired because of choosing wrongly.

Sitting down with wise people and asking questions leads one to making better choices  than drifting along amidst peer pressure. It is knowledge that makes people wise. Getting wise at a tender age is the greatest choice ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Your Life Withers

 In the story of Jesus, there was a time when he wanted to eat, according to Mark 11:12-25. Christ was hungry. He wanted to eat figs. However ,when Jesus reached a fig tree, He discovered that there were no fruits because they were out of season. 

Seeing that the tree had no figs, Christ cursed the tree. By the next day the tree had withered.

"In the morning ,as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots," Mark 11:20.

The tree was cursed by Jesus because it had no fruit for Him to eat. The result was it withered from roots.

The same applies to us humans. We need to be useful to one another in all seasons. We should be handy when other people have problems so that they can lean on our shoulders for our help.

Nevertheless, many are cases when people are not helpful at all to fellow humans. In some cases, they even become inimical to society.

Take criminals for example, they not only steal, but also kill in some cases. They are destructive to society.

When someone is not helpful to society, that person is like the fig tree that does not produce any fruits. What follows is that the individual 'withers from the roots'.

If it is criminals, they 'wither from the roots' when police gun them down. Indeed, like what happened to the unfruitful fig tree, it is just a matter of time before police catch up with notorious armed robbers and gun them down.

You have to understand this. If you are not doing anything that fosters the betterment of society; if you are not doing good to your neighbour, trully it is just a matter of time before you meet your fate. It is anything negative, just like withering from the roots.

When people deliberately do not come to your aid, reflect on your life. Certainly, you may have mistreated some people somehow in the past. You wither from your roots when society abandons you at your time of greatest need.

If you have something to spare, look for someone in need and give. If you have clothes you no longer wear, look for someone in need and help. That way you will be a fruitful fig tree. No one will find cause to curse you.