Good morning all-
I'm having trouble getting up in the morning ever since my wonderful vacation on the lake. I'm sure you've all faced similar situations but it's really messing with my morning routine. It gets me to thinking about what else messes up my life and for some reason it brings me always back to fear.
Fear holds me and changes my daily life. It keeps me from moving through obstacles. Why? Because I'm looking at the obstacle thinking, "I can't jump that?" But then, as I think about my fear, what's driving it and where it needs to go, the Lord steps in and I can almost hear Him whisper, "What are you afraid of anyway?" Well to be honest, I have always been full of fear, mostly the fear of the unknown. And if I'm honest, everything! I fear my children will die, that my marriage will fail, that the sun won't come up tomorrow and will Jesus be there when I need Him.
That's a pretty big laundry list. I probably could come up with thirty more things if I need too, but I'm sure you have yours too. The point I'm trying to make is that fear binds and when we are in fear; we begin to believe that Jesus isn't trustworthy. He becomes a man instead of our Savior. We can't possibly think like God, so why do we always try. And as far as tomorrow goes, we are not to worry about that at all.
It's not a coincidence that I have spent several days on fear. I have been fighting it for most of my life and I am finally in a place that if I have to cast it 100 times in a day, I do. Because my confidence can't be in what I see, it has to be in Jesus. There is no peace in fear and there definitely is no victory. So, why do we cling to it like its a life jacket? It's not. There is no security in fear but fear will make you feel very insecure. Fear breeds doubt and doubt interferes with trust and if there is no trust then surely God doesn't love me. Really? Yes, ladies we all know that's how our minds work. They spin until we have this picture in our head of what God should be doing, we worry about worrying and then we collapse from it. It's time we change the pattern. It's time we realize that Christ is so much bigger than us. It's time we trust Him with every worry, every obstacle, every thought and every action.
It's time we take His love and let it seep into every fiber of our soul. He presented the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and its supposed to be our counselor. What does a counselor do? They try to help you work out your inner fears and help you find contentment in your circumstances. Interesting? So, if we believe in Christ's perfect love for us, can it cast out fear? I think it can and for my own life, I'm trying to practice what I preach. Honestly, this last week I had to cast my fear to Him many times, especially when my sons went to a higher rock to jump into the water. Why can't they just jump on the shorter side? You know why. It's not as fun. And so, I got to give my fear and my children to the Lord all over again and you know what, they came out safe and sound. They weren't scared; they were determined.
Let's be like children and trust that everything will be okay today. We need to give our fears to the Lord and cast them to the sea. And if you need to cast them a 1000 times, do it! He doesn't care. His only goal for our lives is that we follow Him, trust in Him and love Him. Join me in working on one day at a time and casting your fears before the Lord.
1 John 4:18-19 NKJV:
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.
My prayer today:
O, Lord, we are silly in our thinking and in our fears. We run around wondering what will happen next, asking ourselves questions we don't have the answers for and basically, putting ourselves in a state of unrest. But You came to show us a different way, a perfect way, through You. We squander that with our need to control and when we do, we fail. The fears of this life are many and yet, you tell us not to fear. We are to cast it out and give it to You. You are the key to our souls and today, we stand together, inviting You to unlock the closet and let all our fears out. We ask that You would provide Scripture that would help us conquer our fears and release them. So that in the morning, we can walk into the light. You came to this earth to give Your life for our sins and we repay You with worry and doubt. Our goal today, Lord, is to abide in You. For You to perfect us and take us out of our fear filled lives and to be saved by You. Thank You for loving us first and thank You for sharing Your wisdom so that we can fight the flesh. You are everything to us and we want to give You everything we have in return. Take our hands Lord and guide us, convict us, and make us Yours. We pray this in Your Holy name, AMEN
Until tomorrow...
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