Storms hit all of us, and in these rough times, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lost. But when the waves threaten to swamp our boat, we have a decision to make – will we trust in Jesus? In this message, we’ll explore how Jesus calmed the storm and saved his disciples, teaching us the power of trusting in him during life’s most challenging moments.
We, humans, are naturally fearful. We feel insecure. Our confidence may go up and down with the stock market. Lately, it has been going down and down. There will always be problems, disasters, wars, and shootings. During elections, politicians play to those fears. So, where do we find security? Where do we find life-giving water when we are under attack? In this message, we will look at how Psalm 46 points us to several sources of security in fearful times.
We don’t know what’s going to happen next. At times the world seems crazy, and it looks like the wheels have come off, and life seems so uncertain. We may have uncertainty about our marriage, our family, our economy, our nation, our world, and our health. Uncertainty causes fear, a sense of powerlessness, or confusion about what to do next. So how do we live with uncertainty? In a message titled “A Meal in the Midst of Uncertainty,” we will look at how communion can help us understand how God strengthens us amid uncertainty.
The youth of Gold Canyon U.M.C. speak about facing fears. This creative worship service lifts up the story of David and Goliath as an example of courage amid fear.
You might’ve failed at something. You might feel guilt and regret as a result. But the best part of our life might be after the failure. So long as we learn the lessons from that failure. In the message today, this is a lesson Jesus teaches Peter.
When we face difficult times, we might feel like we’re in the midst of darkness and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. In other words, we don’t see hope. Some of us might describe it as being in the midst of a storm, and we worry the waves will swamp our boat. A storm threatened to sink Peter and the disciples’ boat, but Jesus arrived on the scene and caused them to think differently. Peter even requested to take a risky step while the other disciples were boat potatoes.
There are times when we are afraid and we have every reason to be afraid. The storm is very real and the threat of drowning is a possibility. How do we handle our fear? How do we handle a difficult situation? Fortunately there are ways to weather the storm.
We may fear death. We may be anxious about growing old. Someone once said, aging is not for sissies.We may worry about losing our memory when we can’t remember something that we’ve always known. So how do we deal with these fears? What will help us have peace?
Politics stir up emotions. Often we can’t talk about politics at home, at church or with friends because of the division it causes. During election cycles fear may be stirred up in us as candidates point out various things that we should be afraid of. So where do we find hope and peace?
Sometimes we fear other people. We are worried they might harm us in some way so we are ready to take action to stay safe. Our list of people we fear might include people of different ethnicity, religion or social standing. When we act toward others out of fear our actions are rarely commendable. Horrible acts throughout history have been committed when one person fears another or a whole society fears another society. How do we move from fear to love?