As a child, I had a favorite toy that I brought everywhere. That toy was a teddy bear named Jeffrey. Jeffrey wasn’t my only teddy bear, but he was my favorite. I packed him up in my oversized backpack and brought him to school, to church, to restaurants, and most importantly, he was always there right next to me when I went to bed.

As I grew up, I spent less and less time with Jeffrey. I also moved him to his own little spot on my desk where he could read and watch me do my homework. As I entered high school, my father was cleaning up because we were having family coming over to stay with us for a few weeks. That day, I stood there and watched as Jeffrey was put into a cardboard box and shuffled up into the attic. If he was my favorite, why didn’t I keep him with me? Why didn’t I watch over him?

I think all of you notice it too. We live in a very great and awesome time, but with that greatness and abundance comes very scary times. The news networks report terrible things happening all around our world. Every channel or internet article focuses on new details about the Australian brush fires, news about protests and the brink of military war, and massive earthquakes crumbling our world like a puff pastry.

I watch all of this and ask. Is God still watching over us?

In Acts 10:34-35, Peter states, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.”

God is always with us, but the true question we all need to face. Do we favor God every day? Do we place God at the forefront of our everyday living? From personal experience, this is a constant battle for me every single day. At different decisions I make during a course of a day, I know I somehow place God second to my impatience. For example, at the grocery store a new cashier opened up and said I was next. I noticed the person behind me had only a few things so I let her go before me. Of course, that she had to pick up the one item that needed a price check. Internally, I was fuming with impatience ready to burst into anger. It was so fast. I had placed God on the back burner. I had acted selfish and that selfishness got me all disturbed and worked up for really no reason.

This happens to us all. For some, many times a day at work or at home. The truth is when we place God, as our favorite things get easier. When we remember that He is with is in everything we do we can live with no fear. God is love and there is no fear in love. 

Loving Father,

Help us to put You first in our lives. Help us to favor love first and everything else second. Help us to keep the fear out of our lives so that we can only feel your warming love over us.

Amen.