Fear. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like it. I don’t like the feelings of hesitation and dread that come with it, either.
Yet even if we don’t like being fearful, there are things in life that are going to make us scared.
We might fear for our kids’ safety. Or our health. Or we might simply fear doing something because we don’t want to fail. But regardless of what we’re scared of, with God in our lives, our fears can be much less.
The apostle Paul talks about this in 2 Timothy 1:7, saying,
“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but rather a spirit of power and of love…”
In fact, there are tons of verses in the Bible about fear.
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All too often I take my Christianity for granted. Having grown up knowing Him all my life, it is easy to become complacent.
As a teen I found that many peers referred to Christianity as having a lot of rules and restrictions. Even as an adult it isn’t entirely unusual to hear others state that Christians simply can’t have fun.
I however, see life as a Christian very differently.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1)
Christianity for me is freedom. I’m so content when walking with Christ!
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Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist…Ephesians 6:13-14
I remember the first time I read the above verses. I sat on an old red velvet cushioned wooden pew at my neighbor’s church during Vacation Bible School. Attentive, I watched as other children displayed decorative cardboard garments to demonstrate the armor of God. When explaining truth, the teacher told us that it meant to never lie and to also know that God’s word is true.
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Today, something exciting happened… I got 200 in Ten Pin Bowling! That was one of the goals I set at the start of the year. I have some other goals still pending but I think taking a photo of a soaring eagle and writing a book will take a bit longer to achieve.
Do you know what your goals are in life? When you look back on your life, the events that will stand out the most are not the times you were involved in the most ministries, or successful at work, or excelling at study, or had the most well behaved children, but it is the moments that you took time out from the busyness of life and decided to do something different.
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“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
For my husband and I, major decisions are not quickly made. We prayerfully place each big decision before the feet of God trusting that He will guide us – heart, mind and spirit. We carefully weigh the pros and cons, and any potential problems are discussed at length.
We have a lot of little people to consider so there’s much at stake. As you can imagine, this process can take a while, but unless we feel very sure that it is the direction God is leading we don’t want to continue on … been there, done that, didn’t care much for the results.
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We have seen a lot of flooding and swelling of rivers with recent monsoon rains. I was sitting by the river just out of town and noticed many clumps of water lilies jutting out of the fast flowing, murky water. It didn’t interest me much until about half an hour later when I realized that these clumps were slowly moving down the river. They were not anchored to the ground, straining to keep their heads above water, as they seemed. They were actually floating and slowly but surely making their way downstream, to be re-planted again somewhere else. I thought that was quite an exciting mission for the little water lilies, having been used to quiet river-side inlets and suddenly thrust into raging waters, to be re-planted downstream where the river deposited them.
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Worry. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it from time to time. We worry about our kids. Our health. Our relationships. We worry about our finances. Our careers. Or our future. It can be hard not to worry, especially if there’s something that’s putting any one of these things at risk.
Since I’m a pretty good worrier, I absolutely love chapter six in the book of Matthew…
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear…” (v.
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Faith Lifts is unfortunately on a temporary break as we search for a new leader to coordinate and manage the daily efforts of running this group blog.
Behind the scenes there is a huge amount of work to be done, and we are so very thankful to Lundie and Tamera for all the work they have both devoted to Faith Lifts. It is a big job and we appreciate all the time and work that both Lundie and Tamera gave to running Faith Lifts. Sadly, it is time for them both to focus their efforts on other areas and so we must look for another leader.
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