Do Not Fear

Our Theme for June

The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 118:6)

We know that God called creation good. And then came humans with the freedom to do both good and evil. As we look around our world today, we see that bad things can and do happen every day.

With news available around the clock from all corners of the globe we see and hear of disasters daily. We see reasons to be fearful.

Do we also see the compassion, altruism, and generosity of our fellow humans?

I’m reminded of the healthcare workers during the early days of the pandemic, when no one was sure what we were dealing with and how they selflessly put themselves in harm's way to care for the sick. This got our attention and gratitude for a brief time.

When fear threatens to overwhelm us, can we be reminded of the good also? Ask God if there is a place we can serve. Mortals can and do hurt us, but they also provide so much good. The letter to the Philippians put it this way.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

God, we pray to you for strength to overcome our fear and to be the humans who advance your will in our world. Amen.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.