No Room for Fear
“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” -Charles Spurgeon
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 41:10,13; John 14:27; Psalm 91:1-16
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7
At times in my life, this promise from God has seemed to alternate between being a crystal clear picture and a far away, fuzzy image viewed through a broken telescope from a million miles away in the fog.
Standing in line at my grandmother’s funeral, two days before my wedding, God’s peace was palpable. It seemed to blanket our hearts and minds. His promise of love and a sound mind was completely in focus. As friends, family, and strangers came to hug me at her funeral, I felt God’s love being poured out all over us. Back at home, the women of our church had come together to finalize the details and decorations for my wedding while we were gone. Instead of worrying and stressing about the chaos that was around me, I rested in God’s arms, trusted His promises, and watched as His plan unfolded. “My wedding plan” wouldn’t have included the deepest earthly loss I’ve experienced so far, but it also wouldn’t have included the overwhelming display of love our church family poured out. My plan would have seen me as the typical, overwhelmed, stressed, detail perfecting bride up until the moment I walked down the aisle. God’s plan was to have my Stepdad and my Grandpa walk me down the aisle.
Fast forward a year, I’m faced with – yet another – rejection letter from the PA program that I had put my entire life on hold for, my heart and mind went into a tailspin. I didn’t have a backup plan, and I wasn’t looking at what God’s plan might be. I felt crushed, let down, lost, and anxious. I was looking through the broken telescope of my own selfishness.
The difference in these scenarios was where my focus lay.
God is unchanging. His promises are everlasting.
In Matthew 14:25-33, we see Jesus walking on the water and Peter climbing out of the boat to meet Him. At first, Peter trusts Jesus enough to step out of the boat! This blows my mind. He steps out of the boat and begins to walk toward Jesus. However, as soon as the wind begins to blow, he starts to worry and he starts to sink. He took his eyes off Jesus and that’s when things started falling apart. I see this happen so often in my life. Jesus never changes, Peter didn’t start sinking because Jesus changed His mind about letting him walk on the water. Peter started sinking because he lost his focus.
When we keep our focus on God, He promises to give us peace. Not only that, but He is our refuge, He will save us, He will cover us, He will be our shield. All we have to do is trust Him. Trust Him with your life and you will soon see that His plan is so much greater than ours.
In His Love,
+Mandy
Thank you for sharing, Mandy! Yes, trusting in Him is where one of my most challenging areas of my faith lies, yet also trusting in Him is where I have seen the most growth in my walk with Him in the last 10 years.
At 35, I am an earthly orphan. (Thank you so much for sharing the video last weekend because I could relate to her; many times the devil tries to lie to us and tell us that we are the only one going through similar trials. There is power in our testimonies for God’s glory.) My dad died almost 9 years ago from a heart attach, and my mom died 5 years ago from ovarian cancer. During the years after these heartaches, I have had to learn to trust God more and more. Three key verses that He used (and still uses) to help me through these times were (are) Isaiah 43:1-3, Philippians 4:7, and Psalm 46:10. “Be still and know that I am God . . .” was sometimes the hardest because I thought I needed to Do something, yet what God was teaching me was to trust Him through being still and simply trusting in Him. He was working out all the details for me.
Yes, His plan is so much greater than our plan.
“When you can’t see His hand, trust His heart”
♥️ ~ Amanda
Thank you so much, I love those verses! They’re wonderful daily reminders of a God who is beyond worthy of our trust!
-Mandy