What are you afraid of?...

We all have fears to face. Some are just short temporary fears and some are over the long haul of life that debilitates and take the joy of living God wants us to have.

What are your fears? While looking over the internet for a list I found a list 13 1/2 pages long. I never new there were so many!!!

I used to be terribly afraid of heights. Just getting up on a ladder frightened me. So I did something drastic about it and climbed Mt. Katadin. Quite a few years ago I went with a college group and with God's help and friends encouragement I was with made it to the top. Now I can handle a ladder.

Throughout the Bible we can read about fear. We are to fear (respect) God only as believers. Abraham recognized in his travels that some cities had no fear of God. Moses wanted Israel to have a healthy respect for God. Since he had seen the lack of it in Egypt, Moses knew God's people needed to understand where sin would take them if they turned back. Job feared God and David said, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

In the New Testament Paul addresses Timothy who is a young pastor about fear. II Tim. 1:7 says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear but of peace, love and a sound mind." That made me think a little...about the love thing in this verse...what's going on with that?

I Cor. 13 says love is the greatest thing. How in the world can love help my fears? Well, I John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." God has given us the ability to have a perfect love...His love...and with that love we understand His care for us. Fear keeps us from living and reaching out...love drives us to do and be all God wants us to be. If we get closer to the Lord we embrace and understand all the more just how much He loves us and will take care of us. Fear of people, places and things are NOT necessary for the believer! Go live your life for Him!

Me? Emotional?

This coming Sunday I start a class for the Senior High young ladies and all other ladies interested. Most every year our church takes a few weeks to strengthen the families of our church and this year is proving to be no exception.
This year I was led to look at the emotions we women face. The eight week class is not going to begin to cover this vast topic but we'll look at some basics. What are good and bad emotions? How do we weed out the bad ones and embrace the good ones? We are also going to take a couple of weeks to look at the emotional abuse that is prevalent in many homes...sad to say Christian homes.
I experienced the emotion of sadness this last Wednesday as I said goodbye to my daughter Katie. We visited her over Christmas and I won't get to give her a hug until May when she comes home. God gives me His incredible grace to have her so far away.
Are you emotionally down after the Christmas holiday? I was...just something about the build up to Christmas and in one day...it's all over. Maybe you went on impulse and spent to much? There is always something to learn from our emotions...good or bad! God once again can give you His grace to deal with the after Christmas mess.
Stay tuned over the next few weeks and I'll give you my ideas (some I've learned the hard way) on how to deal with emotions.
The picture attached is of Katie and me on Christmas day!