Different Things God is teaching Me

Fear, Fame, & the Peace of God

It is easy to be filled with fear and depression at our seeming smallness and obscurity when we stumble in comparing ourselves in the spotlight of seeming success of this world's celebrities. Little do we realize that even celebrities are propelled by that same fear of becoming small, rejected, and forgotten. They can call it what they will; inspiration, passion, self-confidence, self-assurance, it doesn't matter. It all boils down to the same irrational fear. If celebrities were truly content with life and without fear, then they wouldn't work so hard at maintaining their fame and being the public figure.

It is easy for God's people to slip into following this mindset of the world as well. And it is hard for us not to second-guess ourselves and wonder whether we ought to be doing something more. If we are not renown, are we useless? If we do not have as many followers or likes as others, are we doing enough?
As we pray for our own walk with God, let us also pray for the celebrities we admire; not for the sake that they are celebrities but for the fact that they are souls who bear the image of God and who are lost in the vain fight of preserving a glory (their own) which cannot save anyone. God help us all to be followers of Him. We need to be in the business of magnifying the true Glory (God's) that alone can save.

Here are three (of many) passages to help us re-focus and re-assure us our worth and importance before our Creator:

Colossians 3:1-3 ~ "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and YOUR LIFE IS HIDDEN WITH CHRIST IN GOD."

Hebrews 13:5-6 ~ "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we may boldly say; 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?' "

Psalm 37:5-7 ~ "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way..."

Later on, the Psalmist says, "those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." (v. 9) It is not a matter of "waiting on the next promotion" or the "next grand lottery prize". This verse calls for all to "wait on the Lord", and in His own time, He will mercifully cause us to inherit the earth. As one theologian pointed out, this was the downfall of Stalin: He forgot that it was to the meek, not the aggressive, that God gives the inheritance of the earth.

Do not rest your gaze on the spotlight and the passing flower. Rest it on the One Unseen and who blesses those who choose to still believe by trusting-n-waiting on Him.