There is a story about a man who walked a tight-rope across the Niagara Falls with a crowd watching. After he finished, he walked across the falls on the tightrope while pushing a wheelbarrow with his dog in it. Finally, after he did that, he walked across with his son in the wheelbarrow. When he finished, he asked a man in the crowd. “Do you think I could do that again?” the man answered, “yes.” He asked the man again, “are you really sure I can do that again?” the man said with confidence, “definitely.” Then the tight rope walker said to the man, “get in the wheelbarrow.”

In Luke 24:38, after Jesus rises from the dead, he visits the disciples and says, “Why are you frightened? Why are your hearts filled with doubt?”

As humans, we may seem to have great confidence in our opinions and beliefs, but sometimes we don’t believe enough to have the confidence to overcome our emotions and our logic. For the spectator and the tightrope walker, it is overcoming the fear that even though he saw the tightrope walker perform the stunt three times, he could not overcome his fear and get in the wheelbarrow, because of the potential risks.

In the case of the disciples, their logical minds had trouble accepting what they were seeing, Jesus alive, in the flesh, after they watched him be crucified.

It takes boldness and confidence in God’s commitment to be with us, for us to overcome our logic and our emotions and do what we know God wants us to. Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Dear Lord, When we are afraid, or our logic conflicts with our faithful following of your will, you can give us the strength to overcome. Help us overcome these obstacles to act for you. Help us realize each time we do, we have become more capable to overcome the next obstacle. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

You may have hear the Native American story that goes like this.

A Grandfather told his grandson.

“There is a battle going on inside every human. Including you. It’s a battle of two wolves — a dark and a light wolf. The dark wolf represents envy, arrogance, anxiety, ego, inferiority, regret, greed, self-pity, guilt, false pride, fear, pain, anger, jealousy, rage; the light wolf represents love, peace, humility, kindness, serenity, generosity, trust, tranquility, compassion, empathy, joy, gratitude.”

After some silence, the grandson asks, “Grandpa, which wolf wins?”

The Grandfather responds slowly, “Whichever one you choose to feed.”

I think this story is an interesting parallel to the “Fruit of the Spirit” in Paul’s letter, Galatians 5:19-23, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

This is the battle going on inside each of us; between our sinful nature and the Holy Spirit in us. Which will win? The one we feed.

Dear Lord, help us recognize the conflict inside ourselves and choose to feed and follow the Spirit to live our lives filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I think there are two types of belief for Christians. First, and most important, is the belief that Jesus Christ is God, and that his death and resurrection are the ransom for our sins and provides us salvation.

For many of us, the second belief is the hard one. That is the belief that God knows and cares for each of us, and He can and will intervene in our and other’s lives.

Jesus tells the Father of a demon possessed boy in Mark 9:23, “Everything is possible for one who believes.” I believe the father’s reply is what we often feel, when we want and hope for something badly. He says, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Believing changes how we act. When we believe, we act with confidence, with an expectation that God loves us, will not harm us, and will intervene and make things work out the way that is best for us.

Dear Lord, Help us with our unbelief. Help us realize that you want us to believe with confidence, and expect your answers to our prayers. For those answers of favor, grace and salvation, we thank you Lord. Amen.

How often we limit ourselves by believing that we cannot do something because we don’t have enough influence, enough education, enough money, enough time, etc. We don’t pursue the dreams in our hearts, or make the contributions in our communities or churches, because we think we need more of something before we can start.

I think one of the lessons of the story of Jesus’ miracle of feeding the 5,000 is the process he took to do something tremendous starting with the limited resources he had. John’s account of the story in John 6:11,12 goes, “Then Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks to God, passed them out to the people. Afterwards he did the same with the fish. And everyone ate until full! “Now gather the scraps,” Jesus told his disciples, “so that nothing is wasted.” And twelve baskets were filled with the leftovers.”

The simple steps are 1) Believe 2) Start with what you have 3) Thank God for what you have and what he will do 4) Get started.

Dear Lord Help us remember these simple steps you taught us to follow. Help us remember there is no limit to your power, and therefore no limit to what you can do through us. We thank you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Discipline is “doing the right thing.” It is usually mentioned when doing the right thing is not what we really want to do at the time.

When we are children, our parents sometimes had to provide the discipline for us, making us do the right thing when we didn’t want to. When we mature, however, we build “self-discipline” where we will do the right thing on our own.

One challenge as we become more mature and self-disciplined is that we become more confident in our own opinions, and become resistant to correction from outside.

If we are following God, he is always there providing us discipline when we need it, and subtle correction when we need that. It is important to keep our minds attentive to his inputs that may come from our conscience, comments from others, Bible studies, or other places.

Proverbs 15:30 says, “If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.” We need to look for God’s corrections that will improve our understanding of our situations.

Dear Lord, thank you for providing guidance to help us with the directing our lives. Help us listen for and be open to your correction. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.