Dig it out...get rid of it! In His Word 7-3-23
When I was a teen I bought my mother a little wax candle
that was green and bumpy, it was called a “Worry Wart”. We all laughed at it because
my mom worried about us kids all the time, if we would do good in school, if we
would be safe riding our bikes, climbing trees, etc. The thing is worry is not
something to laugh at.
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one
and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money. “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about
your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds
of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Matthew6:24-26
The Lord tells us in Matthew 6 not to worry about, well
pretty much anything. When we do we have
to ask ourselves why we worry. Is it because we are afraid things won’t turn
out the way we think they should or want to? If it is then we are not being
obedient to God.
Sometimes we worry because of a lack of complete knowledge
of the situation. Once we figure things out we see there is no reason to worry.
Other times we have to search to find out why we are worrying. As a child I was
afraid of the dark, or afraid of being alone. I had to leave either a light on,
open the curtain to see the moon, or leave a door open to trust that I was safe.
Other times I would just listen for my father snoring and find peace in knowing
he was there, and I could go to sleep safely. As an adult I find it’s a bit
different, I find that I am uncomfortable, or ‘concerned about’ things and honestly
they pile up inside my stomach sometimes!
I am told they are irrational fears, and though some of them
may be there are others that are rotted in things that happened in my life that
the enemy pulls out to taunt me and cause me to fear.
And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched but found not the images. Genesis 31:33-35
Rachel may have wanted a piece of her past life to come with
her because she was afraid. What if’s may have plagued her. What if this God of
Jacobs is not as powerful as mine, or what if we don’t have the money and need
to sell the idol? There are a lot of
thoughts that could have gone through her mind, but we do not know for sure.
We do this very thing when we hang on to fears from the
past, instead of just digging them up like the root of a tree or a weed, we
allow it to grow back. Sometimes with a dandelion
weed you can cut it off, dig it out and there is still a small bit of weed in
there that will continue to live, eventually growing back to the surface and potentially
scattering seeds of doubt, fear, worry and of course more roots.
My mother taught me to dig my heel into the weed and twist
it hard in the ground, if it comes back you do it again befor it gets big, and
eventually the root will die.
Sometimes we have to do that with our fears and struggles
that cause us to worry; yank it out and then dig in our heels and twist again
and again until it is gone! There is something else we can do that will take
care of it all together; we can pray and trust God to keep us safe.
1 John 4 says it this way; “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. We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:17-19
His Word tells us that He has already yanked it out and cast
it away. He has cast out or driven out all fear!
So ,if we believe in Jesus, that He has made us perfect in
God’s eyes then why do we fear? Do we doubt His love for us? Or maybe we forget
that we can trust Him to take care of all of our needs. He knows how many hairs
we have or do not have on our head after all! He knows us better than we know
ourselves. So why do we look for reasons to be fearful? Why to we try to worry
about things that we cannot change?
hen Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will
wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the
ravens: They do not sow or reap; they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds
them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying
can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing,
why do you worry about the rest? Luke 12:22-26
Why worry? When we remember to trust God to take care of
everything in our lives we have no reason to fret or worry or fear because Jesus
is near!
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| Much Afraid must get rid of Fear to Trust God in Hinds Feet on High Places |
When we remember to trust in the Lord with all of our
hearts, not just part, but all; we can see that He will make our path straight.
Sometimes it is hard to grasp the fact that God is in control. Sometimes it is
hard to believe He would let one piece of hair fall out of our heat let alone
enough to make someone bald, but it happens. This is not a time to worry, no;
this is a time to trust that God knows, and He knows what He is doing, or
allowing in our lives. He will keep in perfect peace whose Mind is stayed on
Him! (Isaiah 26:3, remember it!) When we keep our mind on Him or His Word we
will keep our hearts calm, our minds will not run on with reasons things could,
should or would go wrong, and instead we will think happy thoughts, or in other
words we will trust God and have peace. Perfect peace is not thinking about
what could happen but knowing that whatever happens everything will be the way
it was supposed to be and that will be okay.
One side thought, if you keep going back to fear over things
look up a scripture to stand on, like the one above, and then pray asking God
to help you know why you are afraid or worried. Then get rid of it! Sometimes
at retreats or camps we toss a pinecone in the fire to remind us that we gave
up something, it also helps to write down the fear and tear it up toss it in
the trash and then when, or if it tries to rear its head you remind yourself
you got rid of that and realy tell the enemy to leave you alone! Sometimes we
just have to shout it out! “Fear leave me alone because I trust Jesus and I am
His! He loves me and that took the place of fear so fear must leave!”
In Jesus’ name,