My husband warned our kids at lunch today they were doing a terrible job listening. That this was a bad habit gone worse. That if they didn’t correct themselves ASAP and demonstrate they understood what they were supposed to be doing – namely, obeying the first time – that Daddy would be enforcing the good choices they weren’t making. I…
This should’ve been obvious, I suppose, but it dawned on me this week in conversation with friends why fear is a sin: it twists my perspective onto me – my abilities to handle a situation, my ability to make things turn out right, my power to change things. And plenty of situations stretch beyond my limitations and tempt me to…
I woke up with a sense of dread carried over from the previous day. It hung over me like Eeyore’s rain cloud. As I lay in bed, not wanting to get up, all I could think was I’m stuck. Stuck in fear. Staying in bed was a dead end. I had to have enough faith to walk out the bedroom door and live this day. Wasn’t that the lesson God taught me…
I sat in the pew and braced myself for the fear I knew to expect. I don’t know how many times I thought I was wielding the shield of faith, only to sustain a truth-knifing requiring weeks, or longer, to heal. My pastor preached a sermon last fall based on Kyle Idleman’s book Not a Fan. The sermon’s main message…
For anyone who’s ever defaulted to a straitjacket of fear – reading about Jesus telling his followers they will have trouble can be enough to drive us to hide quivering behind locked doors. John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I…
Life is a lot like playing Angry Birds. We’re supposed to be actively involved in our advancing through life’s levels as we’re told to, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) And I believe God wants us to take risks and be fearless ,even in the face of mistakes. I didn’t have enough energy to…
Chains of fear have restrained me from really living more often than I care to recount. Which explains the level of relief and gratitude I experienced after reading a profound explanation of the cliché story, found in 1 Samuel 17, of David and Goliath. You know: Goliath, the 9-foot tall giant, insults the God of Israel and the Israelite army…
