Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I would have missed it!

Fear.  I am scared.  I am afraid.  I am terrified.

These words and phrases have been in my vocabulary far too much recently.  Fear is an emotion that can stop us from living.  Fear is an emotion sent straight from Satan himself.  Fear is a choice.  Fear should never be an option, but often we let it overcome our faith.

To be fearless is to be faithful, but in return, to be fearful is to be faithless.

I want to choose faithful.  I want to choose fearless.  I want to choose it every chance I get.  Today's memory verse for the girls was Philippians 1:21 "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

I want to live for Christ.  I can't do that if I am being fearful.  I struggle with this emotion more than I let on.  I want to explore this topic over the next couple of days.  It is a topic that has been all around me since the new year began.  It is a topic, that quite frankly as ironic as it sounds, scares me.  If I am completely fearless and step out in complete faith, what exactly will God call me to do?

But, for today, I wanted to share something God laid on my heart during our trip last week.  You see, as I said before, I was so fearful of going.  I was fearful of leaving my girls.  I was fearful of flying alone.  I was constantly saying 2 Tim 1:7 "For God has not given us the spirit of fear..." and Ps 56:3 "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."  Yes, they offered a peace, but I still had this nagging fear.

The Lord provided another verse to recite during my fearful times.  And it was the peace icing on my scaredy cat cake.

Today's Verse
"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"  Psalms 27:1

Let's replace the word "whom" with "what" and read it again.

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; what shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life; of what shall I be afraid?"

I am so glad He is our light.  I am so glad He is the strength of our life.  I am so glad I have nothing to fear or be afraid of because of those promises.

Could tragedy have occurred while I was away?  Yes, it very well could.  But, I cannot live my life thinking of the those things that might happen.

If I would have stayed home because I let my fears get the best of me, I would have missed...

-Seeing the Grand Canyon and other treasures from the plane window...God's creation from a wonderful viewpoint.
-Driving out to the Grand Canyon with my husband...we saw so many wonderful sites including the Hoover Dam, complete nothingness, and drove on bumpy dirt roads with cows walking along side us.  FUN!
-Getting as close to the edge as we dared while looking one whole mile down...I have to say I was not as brave as my husband.
-Hiking up a small little mountain...though we didn't go all the way to the top, half way up was still so rewarding.
-Spending some wonderful quality time with my husband...anytime we get an uninterrupted meal and talk time is so valued.
-Seeing a part of his work that is so important to his job...the Lord has blessed my husband with his career and we know it is all a gift from God.
-Even though it is sin city, the lights of Las Vegas were pretty...the views from our hotel were amazing also.
-Speaking of views, having our last breakfast together before I came back home while watching the sun peak over the mountains...simply breathtaking. (And the cinnamon roll we shared was heavenly too)
-Hearing that my oldest daughter prayed that "Mommy will not be afraid when she has to get on the plane all by herself."...and then when she hugged me when I got home and she whispered to me "Mommy I prayed for you."
-Hugging and squeezing my girls when I ran through the door...and getting to give them their prizes that made them sooooo excited (glow in the dark shirts are so cool!).

I am so thankful for the opportunity to go on this trip, and I am so thankful God strengthened me and allowed me to go with minimal fears.  There is still so much to share about the topic, so until tomorrow let's step out today and live fearless in complete faithfulness.



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