{"id":26880,"date":"2026-04-27T07:45:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26880"},"modified":"2026-04-27T08:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:02:35","slug":"26880","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26880","title":{"rendered":"Trust in God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Be Not Afraid by Bob Dufford, sung by John Michael Talbot with lyrics\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wQr4udSiEew?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sunday, April 26, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Jesus said to his disciples, \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God. Have faith also in me.\u201d<br>\u2014John 14:1<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard Rohr reflects on the relationship between anxiety, fear, and faith:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our time has been called the age of anxiety, and I think that\u2019s probably a good description. We no longer know what or where our foundations are. When we\u2019re not sure what is certain, when the world and our worldview keep being redefined every few months, we\u2019re going to be anxious. Understandably, we want to get rid of that anxiety as quickly as we can.\u202fI know I do.\u202fYet, to be a good leader of anything today\u2014a good pastor, manager, parent, teacher, or even a good citizen, we have to be able to contain and patiently hold a certain degree of anxiety and fear. Greater levels of leadership require leaders who are capable of holding greater anxiety. <strong>Leaders who cannot hold anxiety will never lead us any place good or new.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s probably why the Bible says \u201cDo not be afraid\u201d almost 150 times! <strong>If we cannot calmly hold a certain degree of fear and anxiety, we will always look for somewhere to expel it. Expelling what we can\u2019t embrace gives us an identity, but it\u2019s a negative identity. It\u2019s not life energy, it\u2019s death energy. <\/strong>\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can we recognize how different the alternative of faith and trust is? Faith can only build on a totally positive place within, however small. <strong>God just needs an interior \u201cYes\u201d to begin, a mustard-seed-sized place that is&nbsp;<em>in love<\/em>\u2014not fear\u2014that is open to grace.\u202f [<\/strong>1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One could sum up the Bible, and our lives, as an interplay of fear and faith. In general, people are obsessed and overpowered by fears; they fear what they cannot control. God is one of our primary fears, because God is totally beyond us and totally beyond our control. <strong>The good news is that God has breached that fear and become one of us in Jesus.<\/strong> Through Jesus, God says, in effect, \u201cYou can stop being afraid. It\u2019s okay. You don\u2019t have to live in chattering fear of me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The opening chapter of Luke\u2019s Gospel presents Mary as the archetypal Christian because God comes into her life and proclaims the divine presence within her, immediately telling her through the angel, \u201cDo not be afraid\u201d (Luke 1:30). Through the same divine Spirit, God comes into our lives and announces the divine presence within each of us. <strong>All we are asked to do is be present and open. <\/strong>Only after God calls Mary beyond her fear does God give the message of her calling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fear can keep us from hearing what is really being said. Mary\u2019s spirituality is focused on trusting. She said, \u201cLet what you have said be done to me\u201d (Luke 1:38). <strong>She doesn\u2019t try to explain or understand. She just says, \u201cI trust you, God. Do with me what you will. Let it be.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Calming Our Fears<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Monday, April 27, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard responds to the question, \u201cWhy was Jesus not afraid?\u201d<\/em><em>:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus seemed to know from an early age that <strong>we cannot build on fear. We can build only on life; only life leads to life. <\/strong>Jesus went to the deepest source of life. He gazed long and hard into God\u2019s eyes; there, somehow, but most assuredly, he overcame fear. He did not find assurance that he would \u201cwin,\u201d because humanly speaking, he didn\u2019t. And I don\u2019t believe that he found assurance that he was right, either, although we tend to think he knew it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His only <strong>assurance was knowing he spoke only what he had first heard <\/strong>(see John 8:28). He handed over the vision that he had seen in God\u2019s eyes: <strong>a love that overcomes fear, and offers a terrible, wonderful courage, allowing us to release our life, to let it fall and go where it might.<\/strong> Jesus\u2019s trust was not in himself but in who he knew he was before God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When Jesus preaches, he tells others what he first heard: \u201c<\/strong>Do not be afraid.\u201d He learned that well from his own tradition. Those words were communicated again and again, through God, other people, and in prayer: To Abraham and Sarah, God said, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d To Moses, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d To Joshua and Gideon, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d To Samuel and Hannah, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d To Judith, \u201cDo not afraid.\u201d To David, in the prayers of his heart, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To the people of Israel, throughout the prophets again and again, and in every type of cataclysmic situation: \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d&nbsp; Through Isaiah, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d To Joseph, the father of Jesus and husband of Mary, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d And, of course, to Mary who said yes, the angel said, \u201cDo not be afraid, Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why this word over and over again? Because we\u2019re afraid! We\u2019re wrapped and sometimes even trapped in our fear. We want to go beyond it and yet somehow it controls us. <strong>We fear what we do not know and do not understand. We fear that what we are afraid of will control us, while we long to control our own lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deep down, we long for freedom, but <strong>if we want to be free from fear, we must be willing to gaze into God\u2019s eyes as Jesus did<\/strong>. We must be willing to ask the same questions Jesus was asking. It\u2019s not important that we get answers. <strong>I don\u2019t think Jesus got that many answers, but we need to be asking the right questions: What is it that we desire? What is it that we\u2019re trying to protect? What is it that we\u2019re afraid is going to overtake us and control us?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We can\u2019t attack fear head on.<\/strong> We can\u2019t simply say to ourselves, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid\u201d because it doesn\u2019t work. It isn\u2019t that simple. We have to go deeper, be curious about where the fear is coming from, and trust God with it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Individual Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where do you most need to hear &#8220;Do not be afraid&#8221; today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Group Discussion \u2014 choose one:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>What is your fear trying to protect, and what would it mean to bring it into God&#8217;s gaze rather than expel it onto someone or something else?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mary&#8217;s response was &#8220;let it be done to me.&#8221; Where in your life are you being invited to that posture right now?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rohr says we cannot attack fear head-on \u2014 we have to go deeper and get curious about where it&#8217;s coming from. What might &#8220;going deeper&#8221; look like for you this week?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday, April 26, 2026 Jesus said to his disciples, \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God. Have faith also in me.\u201d\u2014John 14:1 Father Richard Rohr reflects on the relationship between anxiety, fear, and faith: Our time has been called the age of anxiety, and I think that\u2019s probably a good description. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26880"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26880"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26888,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26880\/revisions\/26888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}