The Haunted Houses of Life

 What do you fear?

Fear has a purpose. It reveals an area in our lives of false belief because God has told us so many times to "fear not". 

Fear in life is like the haunted house or the roller coaster ride.  One thing that enables me to "enjoy" these activities is because I understand that even though they can scare me... they can not harm me.  They have limitations. 

There are things in this life that scare us.  Each person has their "boogey man". So many times, the enemy likes to take those things that brings fear into our lives and diminish the freedom we were meant to experience. 

But God has told us so many times through scripture to "fear not."  In fact.. it is the most repeated command throughout the whole Bible.  

Here are just a few times that God deals with fear in the Bible: 

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Isaiah 41:10 

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

These are just a couple. 

As you read this post.. I know that it will ring true with you.  But... just letting it ring true will not be enough to change how you deal with this fear.  It might encourage you for today.. But tomorrow.. those fears will come back to torment.  We have to take God's word and revelation and constantly repeat this lesson to ourselves so we don't forget it.  Jews even to this day wear scripture on their bodies to remind themselves of God's word.  We are told throughout scripture to meditate on God's word.  For me to learn this lesson of dealing with my fears.. I have to write it down.  I have to set alarms on my phone alarm frequently to remind myself.  I have to be diligent in order to truly learn this lesson.  

One of my biggest fears is a fear of depression.  Depression consumed a large chuck of my life.  Today, I walk in a lot of victory over that dreaded disease. Praise God!  But.. there are times that I wake up and I there is a sense of heaviness and depression that I face.  To be honest it used to scare me.  I had this fear that I was going to slip back into this abyss.  Now.... I am learning to realize that it is just like that huanted house or that roller coaster ride.  It was meant to scare me.... but it can not!   

I will constantly remind myself ot this fact until... I just naturally walk in the freedom that God desires for me. 

Boo!

Be blessed!

Slow process

Ever feel like nothing is going on in your life. That you aren't growing, learning or discovering?  Back when you first started on this journey with God... things happened almost constantly.  New revelations, new freedoms, new experiences... but lately.. it doesn't appear that anything is happening.  In fact, it might even seem that you are going backwards.  Well, consider this scripture:

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  Philippians 1:6

Just like  sculptor, when he starts a project with a new piece of marble... the beginning cuts are large, drastic and noticeable. Every time you turn around something major is happening.

The closer that the masterpiece gets to its final image... the less noticeable and smaller the progress will be.  To your eye, it might even seem that the work has stopped... but if you look closely... you will see a small cut here... a tiny chip here.....

Be assured,  that progress is being made and the Father is very
proud of the masterpiece you are becoming.

You bring delight to God

You know how there are those special people in your life that no matter how bad your day might be... a heart to heart conversation with that person..makes everything better.  That is how God feels about your time with Him.  I know He knows all things.. but with all the things He deals with in this world all the time.. He is refreshed and enjoys spending time with you.

Peace Forfeited No More

This hymn comes to my mind this morning.... Oh what peace we often forfeit.  Oh what needless pain we bear.

I think our concept of prayer needs updated.  My default picture of prayer is one of the old saints on their knees kneeling at an altar and just crying out and moaning their requests over and over as if God was deaf.  

My practical application of prayer is..... me.... sitting in my sling back chair in my bathroom so as not to disturb my wife and casually spending time with the God Who loves me.  Conversing back and forth.  Sometimes quiet sometimes not.  To me... this is prayer.

Back to the hymn.... last night going to bed.. .there was some unrest in my soul.  For what reason?  Who knows?  But I fell off to sleep.  Woke up this morning still experiencing this unrest.  Listening to several youtube messages from some of my favorite Bible teachers... Still the unrest remains.

Finally, I get up and go to my quiet place (the bathroom) and open up my laptop to start journaling my conversations with God (I use this technique a lot in my quiet time.. for me, it is greatly effective). Within minutes... the peace comes.  The unrest is washed away.........    and the words to this hymn waft through my mind and soul........"All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer".