Fear is safety!

Psalms 29:10-11 - The Lord sits enthroned over the floodwaters. The Lord sits enthroned – King forever! Let the Lord give strength to his people! Let the Lord bless his people with peace!

I think we sometimes forget fear is a gift from God. Fear is safety. Fear is what tells us not to walk down a dark alley at night. Fear is why we instruct our children not to play in traffic. Fear is a gift to help us and those around us to survive and thrive. But like any of God’s gifts, when it is used outside of God’s design and purpose, they quickly become destructive.

Take water for example. It is vital that we have water daily. From hydrating ourselves to watering our plants, to cleaning; water is a precious gift, one we can’t live without!

But, perhaps like me, you have returned home from an evening out during Christmas to discover your dishwasher has leaked all over your kitchen hardwood floors!

That essential water, needed inside the dishwasher in order to clean and sanitize my dishes, became frustratingly destructive the moment it went outside of its purpose. The longer the water leaked onto my floor, the more it spread, and the more damaging it became as it warped my floors and insidiously seeped into other areas of the sacred space that is my home.

Fear can do the same for us women. We must ask ourselves, how long do I let fear stay in my life? How far will I allow it to spread and derail God’s perfect plan for me?

I have experienced fear and its deep hold on me almost my entire life. Early memories included being terrified of the dark, and of the speed with which some adults in my life would emotionally detonate. As I grew older, fear continued its grip but presented as anxiety and insecurity. I battled with dark thoughts; not being wanted, never being good or smart enough, and no matter how hard I tried, my best efforts fell short. I believed every part of me was wrong. Adults, peers, and later my spouse drove these messages home again. Once that ‘truth’ seeped into my soul like the water from the dishwasher invaded my kitchen floor, I accepted that I was a disappointment to many. I incorrectly believed that was God’s view of me. I lived in a crippling cycle of “what if”, “I can’t”, and “they might”, drowning in fear, it warped everything from my thinking to my actions.

The day God began the process of breaking the chains of my fear was perhaps one of my worst days. After suspecting a problem for months, it was confirmed. My marriage covenant had been irrevocably destroyed by two people in my inner sanctum, and the enemy had me right where he wanted me. This child of the king believed she was so warped, so wrong, so worthless, she was ready to be crushed and thrown out. But God had other plans. As the floodwaters of my reality rushed in to consume me, I had just enough left in me to cry out to my Father in heaven. And he was there.

He was with me in my sorrow and offering comfort through His word and the Godly people He put in my life. As I fought to save my marriage, God was building my strength and integrity. When my husband filed for divorce and tried to move 300 miles away with our children, God breathed life into me and gave me peace that can only come from him.

During the two and half years it took to process my divorce God did a massive overhaul on me. Bit by bit, every lie, every accusation, and all the fear I had embraced my entire life, was removed and replaced with His truth. God wants to trade my fears and insecurities, for His truth, love, and peace. It wasn’t easy but because of what God has done for me, and revealed to me, I count it all joy!

Now when I start to feel fear seep outside of its purpose it signals to me there’s something I need to bring to the Father in prayer. If you’ve been dealing with fear and anxiety for a lifetime or a season would you come join me and hear how God broke the chains of fear in the lives of other ladies for “Fear Has No Hold On Me” on April 28^th?

Don’t let fear creep outside its proper place in your life, God is ready to help you break free!

Meghan Burton - Social Media Coordinator 

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New Year, new favorites.

At this time of year, it is easy to get hung up on making new resolutions and setting goals that we often do not obtain. Yet another reason for us as women is to feel the sting of defeat and shrink away, hoping no one will notice or call us out. Yet, the opposite should be true; instead of feeling defeated, we should be encouraged that we tried. After all, many impressive people have failed multiple times before finally achieving the goal, they set out to reach.

I won’t bore you with tales of how many times the light bulb failed before the right mixture of gases was discovered. But I will ask you to consider this, how many people did you date before you found the one, or how many times did you run over a curb before you learned to operate a vehicle safely? Probably a lot.

So why do we feel dejected and disappointed when things do not quite work out as we imagined? I am specifically thinking about the number of gifts ordered from Amazon this year that, when they showed up, were not as expected. I opened a box to get the item ready to wrap and realized I had received a Youth Large instead of an Adult large for my nephew, who is 6’ 2”! Needless to say, it was Dec 23rd before I got round to wrapping it, so there was no time to send it back and get another one.

Sometimes we hit the jackpot; we find exactly what we are looking for or the item and experience exceed our expectations. I recall being introduced by a sister in Christ to the world’s best hair clip! Not kidding, how had she been keeping it a secret from me? Don’t you just love it when you learn about an amazing item, or book, or thing, and you get to share it with others? [By the way, if this is for you, sign up for our Favorite Things party on Jan 26th]

However, more often than not, we have unmet expectations. And they are at the root of many problems that we encounter today. We are constantly dealing with unmet expectations of others, of ourselves, and the things we purchase. A frequent occurrence in our lives is realizing that something we thought was going to happen a certain way just did not.

When this happens in our lives, how do we plan to handle it? There are many unmet expectations in scripture; the women go to the tomb expecting to prepare Jesus’s body. The disciples were expecting to hide away for a while after the death of Christ until things blew over. Paul, on the road to Damascus, was expecting a productive cleansing of Christians when he got to his destination!

Things did not go as expected, and many non-believers today face this same problem. They go to investigate the facts surrounding the death and resurrection of Christ and are astounded at the plethora of facts, both historical and geographical, that unequivocally support and, dare I say, prove that Jesus did indeed die and was raised again.

So why don’t they end up believing? Because our desire to hold on to what we know, what we are comfortable with, trumps the facts we are exposed to. Our worldview takes precedence over shown, proven facts. Why? That is the magic question, isn’t it? Why do you use that particular item that you love? Probably because it has been around so long. To be honest, everyone has something that is their favorite thing, right?

The challenge is creating new favorites, new patterns, and a new worldview. We need a new lens through which to see these things. Realizing that facts support Jesus being raised from the dead helps us to more readily accept that we have the power of the risen Christ within us. This is no wimp here; we literally are able to access heavenly help in changing our lives and resetting our expectations.

Creating new favorites means trying new things, reading new books, and going down different roads. How many new books will you read this year? How many new journeys will you take? How many times will you reach for the unfamiliar rather than the familiar? These are the ways in which we continue to grow as followers of Christ.

Isaiah 43:18-19 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

Just don’t try to do this alone; find a friend, recruit a study buddy, and make a connection with another sister in Christ who will encourage you as you encourage her. We are not designed to be alone; expectations will never be met if we remain isolated. Walk into 2023 with a new drive to take on the power of the resurrected Christ and look for your God-given path in this world, impacting the kingdom for eternity.

CJ Crenshaw 

 

 

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