2 Timothy 1
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Have you noticed how much fear there is in the world right now? There are many things going on in the world that can have a negative impact on us and we have no control over most of them. Many times, lack of control equals fear.
Really, that’s a lot of what both fear and comfort really come down to, isn’t it? It comes down to control. We fear a lack of ability to control a situation or at least attempt to control it. When we don’t have control, then our fear or comfort is mostly based on who we believe does have control and how much we do or don’t trust them.
I have been in a situation that was potentially very dangerous and where I had absolutely no control at all, and yet, I had very little fear because I had faith in the one who did have control. I would like to tell you about that.
My dad is a private pilot. One day, we were flying in his Piper Arrow. We got ready to land. We were on approach and he said “we have a problem”. I asked what it was. He said “We have only two green”. He was referring to the green indicator lights which indicated that the landing gear were down and locked. There was one for each of the three landing gear. Saying that there were “three green” indicated that all gear were down and locked, in preparation for landing. Having only “two green” was definitely a problem.
The main gear under the wing on my side of the plane had no green light, indicating that it was not down or, if it was down, it was not locked in place. If we had landed in that situation, the plane could have cartwheeled. My dad performed an emergency gear extension. On this particular airplane, that involved a procedure to release the hydraulic pressure which normally held the landing gear in the up position and then doing a little aerobatic maneuvering to get them to come down and lock. When he had finished all this, he announced “We now have three green”. He assured me that everything was now fine. Guess what? I believed him. Guess what else? He was right. We were fine. We had a normal and uneventful landing, after which the plane went to the maintenance hanger to get checked out.
Now then, I’m not going to lie, when my dad said “we have only two green”, I was very nervous. If he hadn’t been able to handle the situation and there had remained only two green, things would have ended very differently and the plane wouldn’t have been the only thing needing maintenance. However, when my dad told me that he had handled the situation and that everything would be fine, I believed him and wasn’t afraid any more. I believed him because, although he was just an ordinary man, he had proven to me throughout my life that I could trust him, not just in the cockpit but in life in general. I had absolutely no control over the situation and, even if I had some control, I wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. Even though I had no clue what to do in that situation, I knew that my dad did and I trusted him to do it.
This story is about my earthly father and how I trusted him when he told me that it would be OK. I have a Heavenly Father who is far more capable than my earthly father and my Heavenly Father, too, has told me that it will be OK.
In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus tells us not to worry about our worldly needs but, rather, to seek to fulfill our spiritual needs by seeking Him. If we will do that, He promises that He will take care of us, including taking care of our worldly needs..
Even when He is taking care of our needs, we may have some worldly desires that remain unfulfilled and, in those cases, we can be confident that God is doing what is best for us in the long term prospective. For Christians, those who are His children and who love Him, everything in our life He works for good. We are promised that in Romans 8:28.
You see, God has told us, those of us who are His children, that He will take care of us. I believed my dad when he said that it would be OK but do I believe God when He tells me that? Long ago, I struggled to understand why God allowed me to loose my eyesight. Now, 25 years later, I understand, although those certainly haven’t been an easy 25 years. I still don’t always trust Him quite as much as I should but I’m getting better about it. You see, God, even more than my earthly dad, has proven Himself to me. The longer I walk with Him, the more storms of life He walks through with me, the more He proves Himself to me, and the more I trust Him.
How about you? Your dad may not be a pilot but you’ve probably ridden in a plane or in a bus or certainly in a car when someone else was doing the driving. Did you trust them? You probably did, even though you sometimes may not have even known them. How much more then should you trust God?
In the world right now, we have two green. We are in a situation where we have little control and that can be a bit scary. But I know someone Who does have control. If you are His child, then you know Him too, though maybe not as well as you should. Spend time in His Word and praying to Him, getting to really know Him. Just talking to Him will help to ease your fear. As you begin to trust Him enough to truly submit to and obey Him, that’s when you will begin to find true joy and peace.
Rest in the fact that God has promised that He will take care of you. Take it from me, even though that may not always look like you might expect, He will in fact take care of you and it is a glorious thing to experience. Truly trust and relinquish control to Him. It isn’t always an easy thing to do but you will be very glad you did.
