Fear or Faith

Mr. Bill often tells me I ask too many questions; I tell him he doesn’t ask enough question, which explains why he's so often in the dark!  When God asks a question, you can count on it being probing and the answer revealing.  On the run and in hiding from the evil queen Jezebel, Elijah found himself a long way from home.  Twice during this time, God asked the prophet, “what are you doing here?” (1 Kings 19:9, 13).  O. S. Hawkins makes a valid points about Christian life: we often react in fear instead of respond in faith.  In the face of a life-battle – whatever it may be – it's particularly easy to forget God’s faithfulness and jump track, reacting in fear. Did you know the phrase "fear not" occurs in more than 100 verses in Scripture?  Paul wrote to Timothy making sure he knew God has not given us a "spirit of fear" but rather a spirit of power (2 Timothy 1:7).  Fear is a paralyzer and just like Elijah, if we're not careful, we'll find ourselves in a cave hiding out rather than facing our fears in faith.  Jesus said all the faith we need is the size of a mustard seed - and that's reallly really small - to overcome fear (Matthew 17:20).  If God is tracking your present location - aka "what are you doing here?" - consider it a probing question of fear or faith!