Ok, I still haven't gone back to bed, but trust me, I will.
As I was finishing up, I checked my email and had my daily Elisabeth Eliot devotional in my inbox. I thought it was encouraging especially in light of the recent post I just read from friend Rachel, Knox's mother. Read Rachel's post on "Fear" and then peruse the Eliot quote. Deep truth from two women who know what it means to trust God with their fears.
News reports come every day concerning economic and political calamities about to befall us all, not to mention famines, tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanoes, things which may at any moment strike us or people we love. There are always plenty of good reasons to be afraid--unless you know that things are under control. A Christian has this "inside information." Things are, in fact, under control. God is our Refuge, our Strength, our Mighty Fortress. Nothing will get by the moat of his protection without his permission. To be afraid of what happens today or what may happen tomorrow is not only an awful waste of energy, it is not only useless, it is disobedient. We are forbidden to fear anything but the Lord Himself.
When Christians in China were being hounded to death in the 1930s, one of them (I am told) wrote this simple song, which has helped me in countless times of fear ever since I learned it as a high school girl:
I will not be afraid.
I will not be afraid.
I will look upward, and travel onward,
And not be afraid.
Will power, of course, will not always overcome human emotions. But willed obedience to the One who is in charge, coupled with prayer for his help in vanquishing our natural fears, is something else.
1 comment:
Heather;
I thank God and you today for pointing me towards Rachel's and Elizabeth Elliot's comments on fear. It is amazing how God works, I had an out of control anxiety, not knowing which way to turn last night because I have a lot on my plate and I'm not organized is what I rationalized late last night and early this morning. But, when I read your post and Rachel's post, God has shown me the one thing I have not done is planned time for Him in my life right now and when I do everything else will start to fall in place. I am doing it again trying to handle everything myself and not letting God handle anything, shame on me why do I struggle with this so much.
Daphany
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