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,

Focusing on God

Hey, y'all!

I hope you all have been well and flourishing in the Lord since the last time we "met" via blog!

I'm going to open today's post by asking a simple question: Do you have trouble focusing?

I don't mean focusing on your work, your school, or your family; I mean focusing on God. God is to be the primary focus of our lives. As Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (NKJV) Christ died for us and now we should live for Him. Our love for the Lord should be leading us to focus on loving God and living for the Lord Jesus Christ.

But how can you to tell whether you are focusing on God? Here are some questions to help us evaluate our focus:

When that handsome guy sits next to you in church, are you able to focus on God during the service?
When your daily life seems to involve running in five directions at once, are you able to focus on God during the busyness?
When your boss wants you to turn in more projects by the end of the week than you could possibly handle, are you able to focus on God during the stress?
When your husband is running late, your kids are screaming, and supper still has to be cooked for everyone, are you able to focus on God during the chaos?

Let's stop and think for a minute...all right, how many of us are realizing right now that we don't focus on the Lord as much as we should? No hand-raising is necessary. Just an honest, quiet evaluation of your focus will do just fine (though if you'd like to raise your hand, go ahead). I know I personally don't focus on God enough. Many times, especially those weeks when I have too much to do, I find myself distracted from the real focus of my life. As a result, I stress over everything, I'm physically and mentally exhausted, and worst of all, I'm spiritually off-balance. Last week and this week have been weeks like that for me, and I know y'all can relate. We all go through rough patches in our lives; times when everything seems to get out of hand. It's times like these that we desperately need to remember our focus. If we start to focus on things other than the Lord, we are going to find life hard and the temptations we face overwhelming.

How much easier it would be, if we remembered the focus of our lives. If only we would remember that the Lord works everything for the good of His children! If only we would remember those sweet words, "Be still, and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10a, NKJV)! If only we would remember to focus on the One who is meant to be focused on!

This has not only an everyday application, but a special holiday application as well. As we prepare the menus for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as we plan the parties and the celebrations, as we buy the presents and deck the halls, we should keep in mind Who the focus of the holidays is to be. The focus should be on the Lord. He blessed you with the many blessings for which you are being thankful. He took on human form through the Incarnation, so that He could live a sinless life and die on the Cross to atone for the sins of His people. If we take away the true focus of the holidays (and our lives in general), we are robbing God of His proper glory and we are robbing ourselves of the joy of focusing on the One who died for us.

Have a blessed (and focused) week!
Love y'all!

Lessons from Hair....

Hey, y'all!

A few days ago, I was reading John 12 in my personal devotions. As I read verses 1-7, something really struck me: Mary used her hair to wipe Jesus' feet! Right about now, I feel y'all thinking, "Yes, Lydia. It's always said that, honey...." That's true, but have you ever though about it? I mean really thought about it? I feel that there are two parts to this lesson; we'll only deal with the first lesson today.

Let's consider what hair mean to us as ladies: For many of us, hair is a way of expression; hair is fun to style (unless you have really thick, straight hair, but let's not go there now); hair is something that we use to beautify ourselves; hair is one of our most prized possessions.

And Mary used her hair to wipe Jesus' feet.

She committed to the Lord something that she most likely considered one of her most prized possessions. She considered Him more important than her hair. Not only did she commit it to Him, she used one of  her highest forms of beauty to wipe his feet. No one would have said a word if she had had she wiped the Lord's feet with a towel! Yet, she loved Him enough to voluntarily use one of her greatest gifts for what some, like Judas, probably considered an unimportant service.
 
This is not an attack against hair. I enjoy trying new products and styles on my hair. Two of my best friends can attest that I love hair and always have. I am simply struck that many times we have an attitude of, "Oh Lord, you can have control of everything in my life...except...." Mary didn't add the "except" to the end of her commitment, she gave that one special thing to Jesus. There should be nothing in this life that we value more than the glory of the Lord.

May our Lord bless you!


P.S. I would love to hear what y'all think of my posts! Is there anything that you would like to have me write about in upcoming posts? Hope to hear from y'all!