Tag Archives: fear

August 22
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“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14, NIV)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “compassion” as “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”

To begin to see ourselves as God see us is the first step toward a new frontier of compassion toward others. To regard ourselves as something other than “dust” — that is, as transitory and humble — is to ignore the lessons of history, the evidence of biology, and the propositions of theology. 

We may be able to fool ourselves as to our true make-up because everything seems to be going our way (something the scriptures refer to as “the pride of life”). However, if we see ourselves as God sees us, we come not only to realize what we are not, but to the realization of Who God is. It is in such a place that we apprehend the “fear” (also translated as the “reverence”) of the Lord.

The psalmist says that it is upon such people that the Lord’s compassion rests. God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, as His “sympathetic consciousness” of our distress.  The cross of Jesus is His sole and solitary plan to alleviate that distress.  The resurrection of Jesus is God’s guarantee.  – Luther   

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February 5
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“Then Moses said to them, ‘No one is to keep any of it until morning.’  However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.”  (Exodus 16:19-20, NIV)

The Lord’s prayer includes these words: “Give us this day, our daily bread.”

The daily bread of the Children of Israel’s 40-year sojourn in the desert was called manna.  The wanderers were commanded by Moses to take only what was needed each day (except on the day before the sabbath, when they were to collect two day’s worth so they could keep the command to refrain from labor on the sabbath).  But some of the wanderers paid Moses no mind, and hoarded the manna.  They should have saved the effort: The manna became inedible by morning.

Believe it or not, something as simple as eating can be an exercise in faith.  Do we trust God to supply all of our needs, or do we have our own ideas about what we shall eat, drink, and wear?  And if we’re set in the food and clothing department, do we reveal our insecurities about the future of our children, the state of our health, or the various other uncertainties of life?

God knows that we need the necessities of life, and he wants us to trust Him to provide them.  We need not hoard; God has not forgotten us.  We need not fret; our heavenly Father has not left us alone to fend for ourselves.  – Luther

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