Do not be afraid

At church today we were asked to meditate on the phrase, "do not be afraid, I am with you." I closed my eyes and fought back the feelings of failure at work, uncertainties in finances, and the death of a family member...  Always coming back to the phrase.  I began to have a vision.  I saw Jesus, standing in the middle of a dark room, holding a ball of light.  Bolts of lightning flew out from his hands and landed on the heads of a crowd of people standing in front of him.  I then noticed that it was me, standing there in Jesus' place and the bolts of lightning became soft rays of light, falling on people's foreheads.

On reflecting on this, I think it means that Jesus prepares people with the beginning of the Gospel that reaches out to them and strikes them like lightning.  Then we are to shed light on those beginnings and illuminate the way forward, by giving human feet to the gospel message.

Later I was comforted in my worries by the remembrance of two scriptures that are interrelated. These two scriptures just came up during the course of the day in unlikely circumstances.  The first scripture was "What is the price of two sparrows--one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it." and the second is "“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?"

I thank God for addressing my concerns: he ties up every lose end.  Faith is an exercise in putting your trust in Him.  And the reward is peace as well as purpose.