Why I Don’t Have to Be Afraid {Day 24}

*Today is Day 24 of a 31 day series called Life Unafraid. It’s a challenge to live free from fear for the entire month of October. As I’ve been thinking through this challenge, I have come to realize that much of my life I have sought the inner peace of this life unafraid. And I am amazed at how truly free I am when my fear is placed where it should be — only in God Himself. Below is a blog post I wrote a couple of years ago about this lifelong pursuit of peace. I found it and thought it would be cool to post it again, but with new pictures. An old perspective on a lifelong search.

When I stop and really listen to all that goes on, I can get overwhelmed with the possibilities.

Like the friend’s daughter who had a hemorrhage in her throat four weeks after her tonsillectomy.  And the 22-year-old woman who had a stroke and later passed away.  And don’t forget the fire that burned down the home and all the belongings of a friend’s friend.  Or the car accident that left my friend’s husband in a coma for two months.

Yes, overwhelmed constantly lurks in the dark when what if threatens the happy of what is. Threaten the easy of the comfortable I rest inside.

But God’s been showing me things about Himself and His always-companionship lately.  Things that make me feel safe even when it’s not comfortable.  He’s been showing me that this side of heaven is hard.  But temporary.  He’s been reminding me that His Spirit is always with me — to strengthen me, to encourage (give courage to) me, to peacify (just made up another word. Do you like it?) me.

And He’s given me this unquenchable thirst for His truth about peace.  A thirst that has led me straight to the water that is His Word, the Bible.  In it, I’ve been reminded of and taught truths such as these:

• Colossians 1:11  I am “strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that (I) may have great andurance and patience…” For the temporary struggles.

• Colossians 2:9-10  “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and (I) have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.”  So — the fullness of Holy, Almighty, Creator God lives in me.  And I can access His power and strength in any situation I am faced with!

• Psalm 74:16  “The day is (God’s), and (His) also the night; You established the sun and moon.”  It’s all in His hand.  So I can sleep and truly rest on my pillow, because it’s all under His authority.

• Psalm 75:1a  “(His) Name is near” !!!  And His Name alone is power.

• Jeremiah 29: 11-14a  “For (God) know(s) the plans (He has) for (me) . . . plans to prosper (me) and not to harm (me), plans to give (me) a hope and a future.  Then (I) will call upon (Him) and come and pray to (Him), and (He) will listen to (me).  (I) will see (Him) and find (Him) when (I) seek (Him) with all (my) heart.  (He) will be found by (me).” !!!!  And He won’t forget.  Further proof that this hard stuff is all temporary.

• I Peter 3:10-11  “Whoever would love life and see good days must . . . seek peace and pursue it.”  Because when I seek and pursue real and true peace (the kind that only He can give), I will be able to rest and consequently love life and see good days.

And so, not only do I not have to be afraid, I would be remiss if I let myself stop pursuing peace.  This last verse hit me right where I’m at.  It’s a command based on the truth of Jesus Christ’s endowment of peace that He left us, His children when He sent His Holy Spirit to go with us, always.  The John 14 verse up there in the quote block.  You know, the one that tells us the Holy Spirit, God Himself, will walk with me?  Yeah, that one ends with the command that has left me pining for even more of this peace.  Here it is from the Amplified Bible:

Yikes!  Pretty strong command, don’t you think?  And yet, before He gave the command, He gave the promise.  Because that’s how He rolls.  He doesn’t ask us to do anything for which He’s not equipped us.  And He will not.  Ever.  Because He goes with us.  He walks us through.  So when car accidents and barf happen, He walks us through, with the very fullness of Himself and in His strength that we don’t even realize we have until He calls us to use it.

And therein lies a peace that cannot be explained.  The kind that can only come from God Himself.

And so I settle in.  And rest in Him, the Giver of Life.  The Giver of Peace.

The End.