Dear Friends,
Recently 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 story,
there is a wonderful lesson. Each of us has choices in life, and the choices we
make will 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 that hope and
encouragement begin 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 in 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 comment to the person I was
visiting was 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.
I hope that any of you who might be fighting
the faith versus fear battle will cling to these verses and find the hope and
victory that God promises you.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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