Fear

Fear. It can stop you in your tracks and this weekend I came close to letting it stop me. Fear of saying goodbye, fear of moving on, fear of a friendship growing cold, fear of facing my past, and fear of losing someone I love all started to eat away at my this weekend. Over the course of a week I have or will have come face-to-face with all of this situations and I almost let them defeat me. And then I was reminded that fear is not what this life is about.
It is about living in the will of God. And the will of God has no place for fear. Jesus came so that we may live the abundant life. Not the life lived in fear. I believe the abundant life is one lived in God’s will – which as I was reminded tonight is finding God at work and meeting Him there. Fear can not be involved in these situations because if we are living in fear – then we can not focus completley on the work of God. So tonight I surrendered it all to Him. I know that He is at work in each of these situations and He will work it all out for His glory.

I have realized that goodbyes will come and that I will leave with the memories of some wonderful students and co-workers and they will hopefully remember that I showed them the love of Christ, even when I wasn’t able to speak it. I will face the future with expectations of again being able to show the love a Christ to new people and new students. I will pour everything I have into a friendship that I’m afraid of losing because I know that together we could do some mighty things for the Kingdom and I’m not ready to let them walk away. When I face my past I will do so knowing I am a new creation in Christ and that I can extend the love and grace that Christ has so freely given me to the one person who has hurt me the most.

If you are reading this and you are living with fear. Know that its not the life God called you to. He called you to an abundant life and that is His desire for you. So I pray that tonight you will be able to turn that fear over to Him and let Him lift that burden off of you and I know He will walk through each situation with you and show you the good in it.

Orginally written: June 1, 2009