This Week at Twin Cities - July 9, 2009

Hey Gang,

This week at Twin Cities we’ll talk about how our view of our circumstances can sway our hearts toward fear or faith. When we look at our circumstances from our perspective and our ability to change them in our own power, we’ll tend to live in fear.

We took our dog swimming a few weeks ago. My daughter, Jordyn, thought it would be great to have him along, and she caught me at a weak moment. I knew better. Our dog is a high strung Jack Russell. His name is Hunter, and he’s been part of our family now for 10 years.

Well, Hunter had never been at a swimming pool before. He saw a big body of water, and his family flailing their arms and making huge splashes. Now to him, from his limited perspective, it must have looked like we were drowning. He kept trying to bark us back to the bank. He was delirious by the end of our time because his view of reality was skewed, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not “save us.” His circumstances created fear because his perspective was based upon his assessment of the situation and his ability to impact the outcome.

Many of us face life and its difficulties with the same kind of skewed assessment. We see the problem. We know what we’re capable or not capable of doing and if it’s up to us, well then, there’s little hope. So we live in fear.

When we look to God and what He’s capable of doing or when we look at Jesus and what He has promised, it gives us a different perspective. Faith results from that perspective. That’s where God wants us to live, not barking frantically at a false danger and living in fear. That’s what we’ll be looking at in Revelation 2:12-17 this Sunday.