Free From Fear Through Devotion

Colossians 3:16-17 ESV

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I am so grateful to be here with you today, bringing to you that which God has first given to me for the benefit of us all.

And as I bring forth to you the message today, I want us to ask ourselves what it is that we dwell on? There are obviously many things which we can dwell on. The world, our flesh offers many things to dwell on.

But from my own personal experience and from the testimony of others, what I believe we tend to dwell on the very most are those things that we worry about.

And have you ever wondered why we worry the way that we worry?

Well, if we’re honest about it, we will say that we worry the way that we worry because we want control over whatever is going on in our lives. But of course, we don’t have any control over anything that happens.

And so, because we don’t have any control over anything that happens, then for some reason, we automatically think that if we worry about something, then somehow, someway, we WILL have control over it… But rather than giving us control over what we can’t control, all worrying does is compound our already helpless feeling.

Well, in our reading today, Paul the Apostle gives us a remedy, an alternative to this helpless, worrisome feeling.

The first thing that he says, in the beginning of verse 16, is:

Colossians 3:16a ESV

16a Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,

Now, the older that I get, what I realize more and more is that time is precious. There is always something to do, something to learn, some way of making the most of my time here on earth. And what I consistently come to find is that my time is best utilized when I spend it getting to know God better.

Getting to know God better is the best way that I can utilize my time on earth, and the best way that I can get to know God better is by reading His Word, the Bible.

And as we read the Bible more and more, the more that it stays within us, and the more that it stays within us, the less we worry about anything that happens in this world.

In fact, when I study the Bible deeply, thoroughly, what I come to find more and more, and am convinced of more and more is that everything is under the control of God.

That is what the Word of God tells us, therefore, the more that we study the Word of God, the more that we are convinced of His sovereign rule over creation, and as we are convinced more and more of His sovereign rule over creation, the more that we see that we don’t have to worry.

In fact, rather than worrying, Paul tells us in the last half of verse 16 of our reading that the opposite will be true for the one who dwells richly in the Word of Christ, when he says that such a one should be:

Colossians 3:16b ESV

16b teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

In other words, because we believe that God controls everything and are constantly reminded of this through the consistent study of His Word, we will then consistently devote ourselves to God and to the proper worship of Him.

And as we consistently devote ourselves to God through the study of the Word of God, through prayer, through meditation, the more and more we become aware that God is indeed in control, and the more we become aware that God is control, the more confident we become of God’s rule, and the more confident we become of God’s rule, the less we worry.

And because we worry less and less, then whatever situation we endure in life, we can do as Paul commands here, we can have thankfulness in our hearts to God. This means that we can, and we will actually become thankful because of what God causes us to endure, no matter what it is, because we are confident that our good, good God is in control.

Now, because this is the case, the conclusion of it all can be found in verse 17 of our reading, where we read Paul, the Apostle saying:

Colossians 3:17 ESV

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Because our consistent devotion to God results in becoming confident in God’s control, because dwelling on the reality that is God truly gives us purpose, then may we practice these things. May everything that we do be geared toward service to Him and may the Word of Christ dwell richly within us.

Amen?