Worry and Fear.

Luke 24 : 35-38       Jesus Appears to the Disciples

 35 Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. 36 And just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 37 But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost! 38 “Why are you frightened?” he asked. “Why are your hearts filled with doubt?

We live in the paradox of faith and doubt.

Do you go through life with continual questioning and doubt – do you find yourself always looking for logical answers to satisfy your mind ?

Doubt is a such a normal condition to us that we fail often to look at where it comes from and what affect it has on our lives.

The Walk – In our daily lives like the travelers on the road to Emmaus we encounter life and the stress of circumstances. That puts a doubt in our hearts and brings our minds to worry about our present and future under a fear of uncertainty. We long for a return to normal because it brings us the comfort of the known. Normal is less Doubt because we really don’t think about it so there is also less Fear and Worry.

We tend to really want to rely on our ability and knowledge of things to prove out everything in our lives. We value our wisdom that is built from a hands on “ show me” attitude to try to confirm even our spiritual lives and often ignore the simple yet profound nature of the Gospel Jesus Christ and Gods wisdom :

1 Corinthians 1:18-25     (NLT)       The Wisdom of God

 18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say,   “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” ……………………. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength

Reason is our logical box and has the limit of what we individually can process and understand – it is what we always try to fit life into. Faith doesn’t share that limit. The apostles had Jesus with them and had him reappear to them after his resurrection and still they doubted – They needed to fit the spiritual into their “logical box” of life that made sense to them. If it didn’t make sense ( that is they could not touch or feel it like Thomas )   they couldn’t believe.

The result of this leads us to physical solutions and a shortage of spiritual space for faith . So many times we think I will come to God when I get my life right ……………………. When I have things in order and life is normal and I have no worries or fears I will come and serve God.

God is looking for us where we are ( like the two he found to on the road to Emmaus and his return to find Thomas ) – if we can’t accept him where we are then how can he use us anywhere else. We recognize that God’s plan is far removed from ours but it is his plan in the end that will be accomplished. We must come to God with our shortcomings of doubt, fear and worry and allow him to lead us to a more productive life in his service.