Love Conquers Fear

23/03/2020

Love Conquers Fear

 

“Aren’t you panicking about your trip?”

If I had a dollar for every time I have been asked this question in the past two weeks… well I could possibly afford some of that loo roll being auctioned off on eBay!

My Bestie and I have a UK trip planned and paid for this year in June. Its a dream we’ve been fantasizing about for over 20 years. I left UK 38 years ago, left behind Grandparents, Godparents and Cousins, Aunties and Uncles. Plus I have a gorgeous grown-up daughter living in London who I haven’t seen in 19 months and extended family and friends. My Bestie is Scottish and left her homeland, friends and family 20 years ago. Neither of us have been back since! To say we are looking forward to this trip is a massive understatement!

By the looks of these travel bans, we may very well need to postpone it, but I’m happy to wait and see what happens and deal with that in a couple of months time… and no I’m not panicking.

What is there to fear exactly? The dissolution of my plans? Let me be very clear when I say this… If God doesn’t want me to go, then I don’t want to go! and if He wants me to go then no stinking virus is going to stop Him!

James 4:13-15 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

Proverbs 19:21 “Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the LORD will stand.”

Jeremiah 10:23 “Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps.”

I’ve suffered from severe anxiety for years, on top of bipolar disorder, and panic attacks and episodes aren’t fun, but they pass. But funnily enough, the stuff I panic about is the stuff I think I can control, like car accidents, making a mistake, running late, making the right choices as a parent, finding food that won’t make me ill, or how to respond in social interactions. But the big stuff, the real scary stuff, doesn’t really bother me. I have peace and acceptance about the big stuff.

Why? You ask.

Simply because God is awesome and He takes care of the big stuff for me. I’m not always trustworthy, but He is!

Of course just like everyone, I have to combat the fears the enemy tries to whisper, trying to get me to use my power and my emotions, tempting me to throw my weight around to try to get what I want, but I’ve got a long list of evidence to lean on that I can trust God completely. This blog is filled with just such evidence.

Jeremiah 9:23 ^“This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.”

Our relationship with God is not based on rituals or restrictions or church attendance, it has always been and will always be a wrestling match deep down in the dirt and depths of our own heart. Its in thoughts and motives, its in submission and obedience, its in sacrifices and gratitude, midnight confessions and prayerful tears. The first step is to BELIEVE so He can show us His love, not just say we believe, but to walk it out every day in the face of fear.

So if you look around and see the big stuff and its causing you to panic, remember that God is there, He is real, He is waiting for us to open our heart to Him. He wants to rescue us and set us free! Its never too late to turn to Him.

His Love Conquers Fear!

 

 

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