Dear Friends,
The other day Jean and I visited a friend who had recently been
diagnosed with cancer. The news was a shock for her, and she was concerned
about how she would address the fear that comes when one faces a
life-threatening situation. As we talked, I thought of a simple story I
heard several years ago.
It’s an old Cherokee tale of two wolves. One evening an old
Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people.
He said, “My son, “There is a battle going on inside us between two wolves. One
wolf is faith, and the other wolf is fear.”
The grandchild thought about his words for a moment and asked,
“Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
In this simple but profound little tale, there is a wonderful
lesson. Each of us has choices in life, and the choices we make, make us. They
will shape our experience, for good or for bad.
One can face life’s challenges with faith or fear and the choice
is left to us. The wolves of fear and faith are constantly fighting to control
our mind and our thoughts and the one that prevails will be the one which we
feed. Feed fear and you will be fearful. Choose faith and you will be hopeful.
Faith and fear cannot exist together. Faith is described in
Hebrews 11:1 one as “Being certain of what we do not see.” It is an absolute
belief that God is constantly working behind the scenes in every area of our
lives, even when there is no tangible evidence to support that fact. On the
other hand, fear, simply stated, is unbelief or weak belief.
As the “wolf” of unbelief gains the upper hand in our thoughts,
fear takes hold of our emotions. But if we feed the wolf of faith, we find hope
and encouragement begins controlling our life.
We need to understand that faith is not something that we can
produce ourselves, for faith is a gift produced in our lives by the Holy
Spirit. The Christian’s faith is revealed as a confident assurance that the God
who loves us, who knows our fears, and who cares about our deepest needs, will
continue to provide and protect as we face whatever situation might confront
us.
Our faith will continue to grow as we feed the ‘wolf of faith’ and
learn of God’s many faith-filled promises as seen in the Bible. The more we
learn about God’s faithfulness in trials (Read all of Hebrews 11), the more we
will see Him working in our lives and the stronger our faith will become.
My closing comments to the person we were visiting were to
"Stay in God’s word and memorize it- “hide it in your heart”- and after
returning home I sent her the following 10 verses to help feed her “wolf of
faith.”
Hebrews 11:1-40, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 23:4, 2 Timothy 1:7, Isaiah
41:10, I Peter 5:7, Psalm 91:1-10, Philippians 4:19, Matthew 6:34-35, Psalm
56:3.
Yours in faith,
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