Episode 1615: Carrying the Light

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,615 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Kendal Layman: I'm Kendall Layman, and I just challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and, and just impact the world by using your time and your talents, your treasures, and to live out your calling. You know, having the ability to live what's your good or life.

It's just key. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer

Scott Maderer: and helping each other look for those that are showing up and serving each other. That is the path to turn [00:01:00] from fear to faith. And respond out of love, not fear. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Psalm chapter 27 verses one and verses four through nine. I share why the opposite of faith isn't doubt, and I also share why we need to respond out of love. Not fear. Psalm 27, verse one [00:02:00] and verses four through nine says, the Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For He will hide me in his shelter. In the day of trouble, he will conceal me under the cover of his tent.

He will set me high on a rock. Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices. With shouts of joy, I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear oh Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. Come my heart says, seek his face. Your face. Lord, do I seek, do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger you have who have been my help. [00:03:00] Do not cast me off. Do not forsake me. Oh God, of my salvation. Are we safer today than yesterday? Are we moving forward? Have we finally found our place in a dangerous world? One of strength, security, and self-determination. And when you think about it, and when I'm recording this, I know what's going on.

But when you're listening to this, I have no idea what's going on. But unfortunately I can be pretty sure there will be something in the news, something in the messaging where. There is fear, there is hatred, there is division oppression, injustice being shared. It seems like we've turned our backs on unity in progress for a nation of division and oppression, suspicious of each other, protective of those like us, and rewarding the haves at the expense of the have nots.

[00:04:00] And by the way, I, I'm talking about the country I live in, but I'm also talking about many, many, many other nations in the world. We seem to begin to elevate personal choice and local options to such a level that there is nothing that unites us any more. It's each person for themselves. Some make it, some won't, and that's just the way it is, but maybe not.

Maybe something different. Truth is it probably won't be as bad as some people think, but it also won't be as good as others. Think the future won't be. That is the future of our nation, of every nation of the world. Any time power changes, anytime there shifts or change, there are hopes. There are fears.

There are someone that's going to talk about how it's been worse than it's ever been, and [00:05:00] someone else who will talk about how it's better than it's ever been, and they're both wrong and both right at the same time. That seems to be the way things are, and if we focus too much on hope, does that set us up for failure and disappointing many of us who wanted a change.

But the call for change seems to be based on fear and anger and hatred, and that's understandable to some extent. I mean, fear is a powerful motivator. People respond out of fear. Telling someone they have an enemy and something out there that's oppressing them is a motivator that gets people moving, will demand change because of fear.

But often then we end up being led by fear or by those who stoke our fears, and maybe there's something better that we can focus on to build a better [00:06:00] tomorrow. Psalm 27, verse one, the Lord is my light, my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be a afraid? The Psalmist knows trouble.

A lot of people believe that the Psalms were written by David, and if they were, he definitely knew trouble. He knew worries. He knew enemies and pride and hubris and mistakes. He knew what it was to be afraid and to want to hide, but. The Psalm talks about this, that whenever he found himself in trouble, he turned to the only source that could reduce and calm his fears.

It wasn't himself, it wasn't his own strength, but rather the Lord, the Lord is the light of his salvation. [00:07:00] Whom shall I fear? And I don't know about you, but I can find a list of whom I should fear and there are a million fears that I can fear, feel at any moment. That's the way of the world, and that's kind of the point.

That's the way of the world. And as Christians, yes, we're called to live in the world. We're called to embrace the world, but we're not called to live by the ways of the world. We're called to live differently, to be the bearers of light, to be carrying hope and confidence and faith and transformation formation.

See, fear is not. Always what we have to recognize. Have you noticed that in the scripture? The opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt actually happens a lot in the Bible, and doubt [00:08:00] seems to coexist with faith rather than contradict it. The prayer of the desperate father in March, chapter nine, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief and Jesus doesn't chastises this gentleman that says that.

He's the desperate father. Rather, belief and unbelief there sits side by side. In fact, belief without unbelief, without doubt, without some part of you going, I'm not a hundred percent sure, often turns into arrogance and pride into belief that I am incapable of error. I can't be wrong. Yeah, where a certain amount of doubt gives us some humility that allows us to recognize, oh, indeed, we can be wrong.

This is above our pay grade. God gets to decide and be grace in the world. We are just [00:09:00] called to be instruments of that grace, not the originators. Look at job. He goes through, convinced that he was right and that God is wrong and God messed up. God needs to fix this. But then when God does show up, he falls on his face and says, I, I didn't know what I was talking about.

I spoke above myself of things I didn't really understand. And God blessed him because of that doubt and that uncertainty, that humility, that recognition that, you know what, I'm not God. The opposite of faith. Isn't doubt. The opposite of faith is fear. Throughout the Bible, over and over, angels show up and say, do not fear.

God proclaims it. Jesus lived it. Paul talks about it. John put it into a bumper sticker and said, perfect love. Cast out fear. Perfect Love the love that comes from Christ. [00:10:00] That's what cast out fear. The opposite of faith is fear. And if you truly love, then you have no room for fear. You can't get rid of fear with wisdom, with knowledge.

You can't intellectualize it away. You can't argue someone out of fear. If your child is afraid of monsters under the bed, you don't say, oh, there's no such thing as monsters under the bed. That's simply illogical. Just think about it. No, you gather the child up and you show them that they are loved and that they are safe.

That's what the psalmist is saying. Seek shelter in the tent of the Lord. Hide in God. Be lifted up above our fears. Stable and not by the way that we don't ever fear things that we don't feel that feeling we are. Humans, we will feel the [00:11:00] feeling of fear, say that three times fast. But when we do we lean into the fear or do we lean into faith?

That's the question you can't really quote live without fear, but you can learn to make choices. Faith and not fear. We don't look around the world and see it falling apart and go, there's nothing we can do, I'm afraid. Instead, we turn to God, we turn to faith. We turn to community and togetherness.

Look for God's face. It reminds me of the Mr. Rogers saying, look for the helpers. Whenever there's a disaster, look for the helpers. Look for those that are showing up [00:12:00] and helping each other. Look for those that are showing up and serving each other. That is the path to turn from fear to faith, and respond out of love, not fear.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship.

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