Overcoming Fear Through Christ....

Hi, y'all!

Starting Monday, I'm going to implement a new system. On months that have four Mondays, I plan to write four posts relating to the same topic. Months that have more than four Mondays will have four posts related to the same topic, followed by an additional post (either another post of the same topic or a post on another topic).

Today, however, I want to talk about fear. I'm personally afraid of several things. For example, I am extremely afraid of any kind of bug that stings. Seriously, if there's a wasp in the room, I'm outta here!

I'm not really sure where this fear comes from. I was stung by a wasp when I was little, but my fear seems to be a lot worse this year (I love flowers, but don't expect me to go near them unless they're in a vase in my house or it's freezing outside). Maybe it's due to the nest of yellow jackets that lived in our yard last year; we found out that they were in our yard, when the poor guy who mows our lawn was mowing near their nest. They were not happy about that and attacked him. I was inside at the time and still shiver at the thought of that.

Whatever the reason, I have literally been living in fear for most of the past several weeks. The weather's warmer, the flowers are blooming, and the bugs are out. I literally will not go check the mailbox when the mail comes.

Today, the opportunity came for me to take my dogs for a walk. I love my dogs immensely and spending time with them is one of my favorite things to do. I have felt too scared to venture out much with them recently and I really missed them.

I decided it was time to face my fears. No one can overcome your fears for you (not your husband, not your sister, not your mom, not your best friend). You just have to trust God and go for it. So, I prayed and I went. I enjoyed the walk very much, though there were couple of jumpy moments.

There are many Scripture verses about not fearing. Deuteronomy 31:6 is a personal favorite of mine. "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” (NKJV)

Did you see that? Not only are we told not to fear, we are given the reason we shouldn't fear!

"for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you." [emphasis mine]

As Christians, the Lord is with us. We don't have to fear anything. Though physical harm may come (everything from bee stings to physical death), spiritual harm can never happen to a Christian (separation from God eternally). Paul discusses this in Romans 8:31-39, another favorite set of verses. :)

Though the fears that we have may be real and though they may seem overwhelming, they can be conquered. Our fears can be conquered because if Christ is our Saviour, what have we to fear?

Sometimes you just have pray and then to go ahead and do whatever it is that you're afraid to do (assuming that it's not sinful). For me that was opening my front door and stepping out without turning around and going back inside immediately. It was running through the yard with my dogs, playing among the flowers. I was scared, but the result of feeling happy that my fears didn't rule my life, the result of feeling like I trusted God a little more than I usually do (I still need to work of the slight paranoia), was completely and totally worth it.

Whatever you do, don't become prideful. If you start thinking, "I'm the one who did this. I'm so great. I did this all on my own," you are completely missing the point. The point is glorifying God, not glorifying yourself. The point is not fearing because God is with us; not being prideful because *I* gained the victory on my own.

Now to figure out how to overcome my fear of sharks...I don't know if shark-diving is quite the thing, but I know I can have victory over that fear in Christ.

Victory is ours in Christ, sisters, let's act like it. Act with faith; act without fear.

In Him,

Trust Issues....

Hey, y'all!

Today, I want to talk about a rather uncomfortable issue for me; the issue of trust. Trust issues are something that many people struggle with, including me. Quite honestly, I can't pinpoint why. My family is great, my friends are amazing, my puppies are the most adorable ones in the world, so why do I have trust issues?

Maybe it's because I've given my heart away to several guys when they didn't earn it (and some of them didn't deserve it). Maybe it's because when I was young one of my close friends "abandoned me" (though all she really did was move on). I just don't know why I have problems trusting others.

What I do know is that I wasn't made to live this way; I was not made to live in fear of being hurt. I was not made to live in fear of being ridiculed and embarrassed. I simply have come to my breaking point. I cannot, I will not, go on living in this fearful manner. It's ungodly and damaging to my spiritual life.

It's damaging to my spiritual life because I am essentially saying, "I don't trust God with relationships enough to let Him control what happens to me and what other people do." That is an ungodly attitude, if I've ever heard one! Paul says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (NKJV) Instead of fearing the future, what I should be doing is thanking God for the present and trusting that, because of His goodness and love for me, He will not allow anything that doesn't in the end turn out for my good to happen! Now, this doesn't mean that you will never get hurt. We are all sinners, so even Christians will sometimes hurt other Christians. We may even not mean to hurt each other, but we still do, whether we mean to or not.

The promise of Romans 8:28 also doesn't mean that if your best friend suddenly finds someone else to spend her time with, eventually she will become your best friend again. God does do that, but He doesn't promise to always do that. He promises that no matter what happens, it will be for your good in the end. The circumstances may have changed a big part of your life, but there is always a reason. You will prayerfully grow closer to the Lord through the tough time. And additionally, you may become closer to another friend, whom you never would have gotten to know as well had your best friend not taken a step back.

As human beings, we were made to have relationships with one another. Most of us are not made to stay in a room by ourselves all the time and never see anyone else. I know I can't. I'm a very social person, even though I'm extremely shy, and staying by myself for too long would drive me crazy! Yet oftentimes because of my fear, I am afraid to speak with others or even smile at someone. My personal shyness cuts me off from people; my shyness comes from fear and lack of faith. Fear and lack of faith harm my relationships with God and with other people

Relationships are a blessing from the Lord, but they do involve big steps of faith. Faith that the other person won't betray your trust, and faith that, if they do, God will take care of you, no matter how much the broken relationship hurts. Faith is a gigantic step, but it's a gigantic step in the right direction.

So, no matter how scary it may be to talk to a new person or say yes to that cute guy when he asks you out on a date (assuming he is a Christian, but that's for another post), you should step out in courage. No matter what happens, God is there with you. "The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore." (Psalm 121:7-8, NKJV)

I would love to hear your thoughts on this! God bless you and always remember, "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6, NKJV)

Love in Christ,

Legalism

Hey, y'all!

I will be able to blog more regularly from now on, Lord willing, because I was able to finish a rather large writing project I had been working on for quite some time.

For a while now, my life has been legalistic. "Do this...don't do that..." and so on. While talking about my struggles with one of my sisters in Christ, I came to realize that the true problem I was having was with my image of God. I was acting as if God was going to condemn me to hell for something as insignificant as choosing sweet tea over soft drink! That may not seem like a major concern, but my life is full of legalism mostly over ridiculous little things like that!

The fact that my view had gotten twisted in the first place was my fault. Legalism is not a godly thing. It's basically doing what you think to be "behaving" because you're afraid that if you don't, God will be mad at you and "let you go."  But God promises in Deuteronomy 31:6, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." (NIV)

I had at first tried to "fix" my legalism by myself. It didn't occur to me to look up Scripture verses to help me until I was blogging (How far I have to go, Lord!). I hope these verses speak to you, as they have spoken to me.

And several times in Romans 8, God reminds us, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4, NIV)

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39, NIV)

From now on, I'm going to try to remember this when I begin to think legalistically. I pray that I will think of these verses often, so I may be strengthened in the Lord.

Have a blessed Lord's Day!
Lydia

Blessed Assurance

Hey, y'all!

Hope everyone has been doing well since the last time I posted! Sorry it has been such a long while!

Today, I'm just going to speak straight from the heart. The Lord has been working with me a lot lately. He really has written it on my heart that salvation is by faith Jesus alone. I knew this truth before; I believed it, but now God has applied it to my life beyond salvation to my assurance of salvation.

Let me give you an example of what I mean: If I am struggling with a sin and I commit it, many times the temptation that follows is to think, "How could you be a Christian if you committed that sin so easily?" Thoughts like this have haunted me for a long time. But think about it, Christians still sin. We are not going to be perfected until we die and go to be with the Lord or until He returns. He died for that sin. It's dealt with. Period!

I now learned when I start doubting to think, "It's Christ, not me," to ask God to forgive me for doubting (and committing whatever sin that caused me to doubt), and, if necessary, to preach the Gospel to myself. Girlfriend, I have literally done this. I have said to myself, "I am a sinner and cannot save myself. Jesus became incarnate, lived, died, and rose again. He took the wrath which should be on me. He loves me. His Spirit indwells me. God the Father loves me and has forgiven me through Jesus." It helps me. Don't let people call you crazy. If it helps you, do it! You don't have to say all this out loud, you can think it to yourself.

Also, looking up Scripture verses dealing with what Christ has done for you will help immensely. Some of my personal favorites are 1 John 4:10: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (NKJV) and Isaiah 61:10: "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." (NKJV)

Christ's love for you is everlasting! Rest upon it!


In His love alone,

Lessons from Hair: Part 2

Hey y'all!

Today we move on to the second lesson from our passage in John.

Judas was not a nice guy (definitely an understatement) and he was very harsh with Mary in this passage. He was offended that she would "waste" such expensive perfume on something he considered frivolous. How many times have we been discouraged by someone who thinks that what we have to offer the Lord isn't the right thing to offer or been discouraged by someone who thinks that what we offer can serve some better purpose?

Yet the Lord Jesus said, "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial." (NKJV) Did you notice that first part? "Let her alone." How awesome is that? I know many, many times I have wished I could have someone to stand up on my behalf. Mary didn't have just anyone stand up for her, she had the very Son of God!

Jesus accepted and loved what Mary had given to Him, even though Judas found her gift disgraceful. Jesus accepts and loves what we give Him in the same way. He loves our gifts to Him because He loves us. Our gifts may not be the most spectacular, the prettiest, the most obvious, etc. but when we offer them up to God and use them for His glory, He loves them!

As I was typing this post, I was led to see yet another lesson from the words, "Let her alone." I have struggled with assurance most of my Christian life. I don't doubt the Lord, but I doubt myself. Many times I have thought that I deserve condemnation and hell. And you know what? I do! We all do! But the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us from our sins by His death on the cross! His righteous life is imputed to us when we believe on Him, it's not and never will be about how "good" we can be. Now, of course, this is not license to sin, but it's comforting to know that the work is already completely accomplished. Oh and you know what? If the devil ever tries to convince the Lord that we belong to the devil instead of to Him because of our sin, I feel that the Lord will answer in a similar manner to the way He answered Judas, "Let her alone..."


Have a blessed Lord's Day!