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Welcome to the last blog in this series on Jesus’s resurrection! If you’ve studied with me online before, you might have noticed we’re finishing a little faster than we used to: eight weeks instead of nine weeks. Let me know what you think of the changes I’ve made on my contact page or via email.

And if this is your first study, I’d love to hear from you at either of those places, too.

Last Week’s Work

LESSON(S) LEARNED

Overwhelmingly, the lesson I’m taking away from this study is the reassurance that seeking Jesus is a strategy for overcoming fear. The divine messenger in this story clearly told the women (whom he’d charged with Christian communication—a similar calling to mine) not to fear because he knew they were seeking Jesus (v5).

CONVICTION

I felt convicted that I don’t always follow this strategy: often I allow our enemy’s seeds of doubt and fear to disable me. My struggle to finish writing the book I first mentioned in this blog more than a year ago comes immediately to mind, and though I am making slow progress toward a new and much improved version of it, I am still sometimes completely undone by feelings of inadequacy.

CORRECTION

As has often been the case in these studies of mine, I felt the Spirit correcting me in one of the cross-references. This time it’s from Matthew 14:

But when he [Peter] saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:30-31 ESV)

So many times, I relate to Peter! I want to try what I see others are doing, but part-way through I take my eyes off the goal, or Jesus, or both, and focus on the things that scare me. Even when I know—as I’m sure Peter did—that my Savior is in control of all those scary circumstances and will come to my aid when I’m doing what He commanded me to do. I still allow the demons of doubt and fear to weaken my faith to the point of giving up and going under.

ACTION PLAN

By memorizing these verses, I want to cement in my mind and heart Peter’s simple prayer seeking His help: “Lord, save me!” If, as Peter, I am doing what He’s told me to do (Matthew 14:29), I have every assurance He will come to my aid. Thank you, Jesus!

Our Next Study

I’m excited to begin the final posts of the 2023 Miracles of Jesus series next week. I hope you’ll join me to dig into Acts 1:6-11 and learn everything we can about Jesus’s ascension.

I’m also looking forward to uploading my older blogs from the other four studies in this series. They were lost late last fall when I had to change website providers, but I do have my drafts and should be able to start reconstructing them next month.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll join me next week to kick off Acts 1:6-11. See you then!