September 22, 2022 — Pruning

“Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”  Hebrews 2:14-18

“We live in culture saturated and driven by fear. We worry about our nation, our borders, our jobs, our schools, our neighborhoods, our values, our way of life. But fear, the book of Hebrews tells us, is the power of the devil. Hebrews 2:14–15 describes the devil’s hold on us as a lifelong slavery to fear. The devil gets his claws into us when we get lost in the fog of anxiety, suspicion, paranoia, and worry about those people with strange accents, customs, and skin colors.” (The Power of the Devil, Stranger God: Meeting Jesus in Disguise, Richard Beck)

Fear can be a powerful drug. I have been struggling with a lot of fear this summer. Some of my feelings come from my own personal experiences with how I view my ministry, and other feelings come from what I see in the church and the world today. If there is something in my life that I feel needs to be pruned, it is fear. “Why do I do the things that I do?” Paul asked this same question, and this is the question I need to ask myself constantly. Am I doing things out of fear or out of faith? 

Recently my wife was pruning branches off a tree that stands in our front yard. She was pruning the branches because the tree was growing unevenly, out of control, and was interfering with strangers who wanted to walk on the sidewalk in front of our house. These are the reasons we prune certain behaviors from our lives. Sometimes we step back and see that our lives have become uneven and out of control because personal decisions and behaviors are impeding with our own progress in life and faith.

If I can give you one piece of advice my friends, it is this: prune fear out of your life and learn to live by faith.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, you call us to live by faith not by sight and not to have fear. Your first words to your disciples on the day of the resurrections was “Do not fear”. Give me the courage today to live by faith, not fear. Amen.

Pastor Dave