Immune to Fear Week 5Sample

 Your Father Will Not Let You Drown 

  Pleasure over pain is our default setting, and we are usually looking for the path of least resistance. But unlike us God sees our lives from the vantage point of eternity, and His primary concern is not our comfort but our conforming to the image of His Son. How effective do you think an army would be if the soldiers were trained at five-star resorts? How reliable would a scholar be if he never took a test? How long would a boxer last in the ring if his training consisted of pillow fights? 

I read about a scientific experiment that involved a group of researchers who had isolated themselves from the outside world in an artificial environment called a “biosphere.” Inside the biosphere the scientists had successfully replicated nearly every weather condition on earth except for one—wind. To their surprise the absence of wind was disastrous for the trees, which began to bend and snap under their own weight. It turns out that wind strengthens the trees by creating stress! Without this resistance the trees will not develop enough strength to hold themselves upright. This is the common law of life. 

Several years ago when our kids were still toddlers, my wife and I lived in a house with a swimming pool that we enjoyed very much. But I was always concerned that one of the children might fall into the pool when an adult was not looking. So out of concern for their safety I enrolled my son and daughter in swimming lessons. The first few days were a torment, for them and for us, because learning to swim is a baptism by fire. I am sure my kids thought their teacher was trying to drown them. They cried, they resisted, they protested, and they pleaded for deliverance. But when they looked at us, their parents, we were sitting on the sidelines silently. We watched their struggle, and our hearts were aching to see their distress, but we would not intervene. This challenge was for their own good, and we allowed it because of our love for them. But all the time they were struggling and suffering, our loving eyes were trained on them. We watched their every movement and would never have allowed them to drown. 

Just before Moses died he sang a song over Israel and said, “He [the Lord] found him [Israel] in a desert land, in the howling void of the wilderness; He kept circling around him, He scanned him [penetratingly], He kept him as the pupil of His eye” (Deut. 32:10, AMP). 

Moses, Israel, David, and countless others—including Jesus Himself—passed through the wilderness as they followed the call of God. The difficulties they encountered and the trials they faced were all a part of God’s plan and were used to accomplish God’s purpose for their lives. Being in God’s will does not mean there will never be setbacks or that we will be immune to difficulty. But even in the midst of the wilderness God will spread His wings over us and keep circling around us as an eagle flutters over her young. God loves us! He will keep us as the apple of His eye, and He will never allow us to drown.

Source: (Live Before You Die: Wake up to God's Will for Your Life pg. 173-176.)