For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” - Isaiah 41:13
What if… I hate ‘what if’. ‘What if’ keeps me awake at night, it steals my joy, and tries to cripple me with fear. Lately there has been a lot of ‘what if’ in my life, ‘what if I am not good enough’, ‘what if I make a mistake’, ‘what if people do not like me’, ‘what if I upset this friend’, ‘what if I lose a friend’… There is a lot of ‘what if’ that plagues my life, and honestly I think that it can hold me back from the things I could and should do. I personally believe that ‘what if’ is a tool of the enemy. The enemy wields this tool of ‘what if’ to cast doubt and fear into our lives to hold us back from the opportunities that God has placed in our lives.
Honestly there is a lot that can be feared in this life, and some fear is good. There is the type of fear that says its really probably not a great idea to hold a metal pole in the middle of a thunderstorm. I would consider that healthy or good fear, and that’s not really what I am talking about here. The type of fear that I am getting at here is the type that would hold us back from experiencing the fullness of God’s plan for our lives.
What if, I told you that the Bible says ‘fear not’ 365 different times? That is one ‘fear not’ per day for an entire year, and then you can start over again each year. That is a ‘fear not’ that shuts down every ‘what if’ thought. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” We are called not to fear the things of this world, but to trust in the one who has overcome this world.
Fear is a liar. It will rob your joy and steal your happiness. Jesus says in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” The one who conquered the ultimate fear, death, wants us to share in life abundantly with him. So, if Jesus has conquered death, what have I to fear in this life? I have faith that because Jesus died and rose again, that I too shall join him in eternal life. So Lord, when the ‘what if’s’ of life drive me to fear, remind me that because you overcame death and made a way for me to enter into eternal life, that there is nothing this world can do to separate me from you.
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