Fear Not

So I've recently been doing some reading/studying and one of the things I'm reading about is fear. I did the study one day, then the next my devo was about fear...so I think He is trying to speak to me. There are tons of quotes about fear. One of the most famous ones, by FDR, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." I could go on for days with quotes about fears, failures, over coming your fears and so on... Most people, if you ask them, will say, "oh I don't really fear anything, or you shouldn't fear things." But we say that because we don't like to think about it, don't like to acknowledge what we really are, what we really think.

We fear never loving, and we fear losing love.

We fear never getting married, but then fear marrying the wrong person.

We fear dying a tragic or sudden death, we fear growing old and feeble.

We fear a loved one, parent, friend dying of a heart attack or cancer, but then we fear them growing old having Alzheimer's or dementia.

Spouses fear becoming unattractive to there mate, mates fear spouses having affairs.

We fear car wrecks, sickness, fires.

We fear rejection, loneliness, loss.

Fear of attack, being robbed or raped, murder and so on.

Parents fear for their children, children fear for their futures.

We fear we will be fired from a job, but then fear we'll be stuck in the same job for ages.

There are so many things we fear. Sadly, for some of us, maybe you, some of those fears, have come to fruition. In my study I was reading, the author brought something to our attention. The most common command in a certain book isn't love, that's the greatest, its FEAR NOT or DON'T BE AFRAID. Hmmm, I wonder why He told us that so many times?? Maybe because He knew how we'd be, knew what we'd fear. Fear controls our lives, controls our minds. Whether we want to admit it or not, its there. I know even here that fear really comes across strong and more in our mind than at home. We give "s" so much control when we fear things...he uses it so much against us.

In all honesty, I'm not sure why I'm writing this blog...maybe someone else needs to hear this. 9 times out of 10, the things we fear most will never happen in our lives....BUT, we have to stop living like He is going to keep us from the things we fear and start living like He will take care of us no matter if they come true or not. Just think, if ________ happens, will He take care of you?? Will HE? I mean really think that through...take the worst case scenario and think it all the way to the end....all the way. What happens in the end?

I have dear friend that says he doesn't fear dying in the least, I envy him. How joyous his life must be! I'm saying this stuff more for myself than for anyone else. Oh, how I need to trust Him... Can you imagine living your life, every day, every moment, when you lie down at night and rise in the morning...without fear. He wants us to live that way, why else would He have said, "Fear Not!"

One last quote about fear, "O death, where is your victory, O death, where is your sting?"

Beautiful, fighting the battle for faith and not fear, Feet.