Dear Partner,

Whose report will you believe? This is the question asked by the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. Will you believe the news reports of the world or will you believe the report of the Lord? I have never seen so much negative news being reported in all my life. On television news programs, the Internet, the newspapers … every single form of media seems to be proclaiming "doom and gloom." Don't misunderstand me, we cannot deny the facts and we have to make appropriate decisions. But at the same time … we have an information media stream that the world has no access to. We have the Word of God. Has God's Word changed? What does He say to us in His Word?

Psa 34:9-10   O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want [lack] to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want [lack] any good thing.

Mat 6:31-34   Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Phil 4:19   But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

We are in the world, but we are not of the world. Being in the world means that the storms of life come upon us just like they come upon non-believers. But our lives do not have to crumble when the storms rage upon us. We can escape the devastation of the storms of life by being doers of Jesus' sayings:

Luke 6:47-49   Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

What was Jesus saying in the passage from Matthew Chapter Six shown above? He was saying, "Don't WORRY!" He was telling us to trust our heavenly Father to make a way for us to prosper no matter what is going on in the world. Do you remember the Manna that Israel ate during their sojourn in the wilderness? There were no crops to harvest in the desert. There was no food to eat. There was no way to survive without God's intervention. So what did God do? He made a way where there was no way. He fed His people with Manna from heaven. He did something unique that had never before happened in all of history. God is your Father. He has not changed. He can still make a way for you to prosper even in the midst of all of these reports of doom and gloom. He only asks one thing of you … Don't worry! Fear is the opposite of faith. The New Testament defines what faith is:

Heb 11:1   Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Based on that definition, fear could be defined this way:

"Fear is the substance of the things you do not want to happen. Worry is the evidence of things that may or may not even happen in the future."

Worry is the product of fear. Worry is the "evidence" that fear produces. It is the opposite of faith and it literally stops the power of God from flowing in your life. Over these many years of practice, I have developed trust in God to the point I seldom worry about anything. In fact, when circumstances are dire and I am not worrying, people could almost develop an accusing attitude toward me like, "What? You're not worried? Don't you even care?" In other words, if I am not worried about the negative situation, I am not being a responsible person. The truth is, I care enough about the situation NOT to worry about it. By standing in faith rather than worrying, I am releasing God's power to move in and change the circumstances.

Let me counsel you to be sure and load up on the "Report of the Lord" during these challenging times. Don't allow your soul to be constantly bombarded with negative news reports without also feeding the "Good Report of God's Word" into your soul as well. Fight the tendency to worry like you would fight a rattlesnake that crawled into your house. You wouldn't put up with that rattlesnake for a minute. You would kill it instantly. Fight worry the same way. Take God's Word and kill worry with it. Get it in your heart and in your mouth. Trust your Father to make a way where there is no way. Say, "I will believe the report of the Lord!"

Sue and I love you and appreciate you.   We thank God for your generous and giving heart.   God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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