Episode #355 When Faith and Fear Coexist – How to Bring Your Feelings to God

What do you do when you believe that Jesus is alive, but you still feel afraid? We're talking about this today because as Christians, we believe that Jesus is alive, that he paid the price for our sins. He rose from the grave. He's ascended into heaven and makes intercession for us. We live on this side of that fulfilled promise. Also not yet fully experiencing the kingdom on earth as it will be someday. We can struggle with fear. We face real circumstances that are fearful, and so it can feel like a struggle to reconcile the two. But thankfully, we see in scripture that we are not alone in this struggle, and we have an example for how Jesus meets people in that type of circumstance.

And as we're about to read in John chapter 20, Christ's resurrection from the grave didn't instantly make his followers brave, but it did mean that they were no longer alone. We see in verse 18, Mary Magdalene is leaving her time spent with the resurrected Jesus, and she goes and tells the disciples about it and repeats to them what Jesus had told her. And then we're gonna pick it up in verses 19 through 21. It says:

“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

Now, it's possible that they didn't believe Mary Magdalene. It's possible they thought that she was confused in her grief or that they were waiting for more proof that Jesus actually had raised from the dead. But they had already heard testimony of someone who knew him prior to The Cross who said, “I have now seen him and this is what he has told me.” And yet, even still that same day by the evening, they were still locked away in fear.

And I'm grateful that we have this example because we get to see what Jesus does. Jesus didn't shame them for the locked door. He simply walked through it. Jesus appeared in the room, even though it was still locked. And he didn't shame them for their fear. He brought them peace in the middle of it.

Peace doesn't mean that there isn't fear. It doesn't mean that we're not tempted to hide or that we feel the need to protect ourselves. Because sometimes we do need to protect ourselves. But fear doesn't get to run the room when Jesus is in it. And Jesus came in this room and twice he said to them, “Peace be with you.” And then he sent them out into the place where they were fearful, but they didn't have to go it alone. He had showed them his hands and his side, and they were glad because they saw their Lord, and then he sends them out armed with peace into the same circumstances that had previously caused them to hide away in fear.

Friend. I don't know what circumstances you're facing today. I in no way want to diminish them. There are fearful things that we face in life in this fallen world, but we don't have to face them alone. We don't have to face them without peace and without God's presence because Jesus is alive. And so what do you do when you believe Jesus is alive, but you're still afraid?

You receive the peace that he offers you.

You ask him to show you himself. You ask him to empower you to walk through even fearful circumstances, knowing that he is with you. And so today we're asking God to give us a picture we can hold onto. This visual of Jesus walking through a locked door to comfort his disciples and to empower them, that one really resonated with me. But there are also pictures that God will give us in our holy imaginations as we navigate hard circumstances. Where we can visualize him there and how he is there. What he's doing in the hard circumstance with us. And those are not pictures for me to give you. They're not even pictures that you need to come up with on your own. We're gonna ask God to give us a picture.

So here's our question:

God, where are you present in what makes me fearful? Will you give me a picture that I can hold onto?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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