Have you ever taken on someone else’s fear? I was discussing with friends a difficult situation that we had prayed over and felt God leading in a specific direction when our friends started telling us their concerns about our situation. And as the conversation continued, I started to take on those fears. My heart and God kept reminding me of how we had prayed carefully about what steps to take and asked for God to open and close doors according to His goodness, but I still let the fears start to take control. By the time I got home, I had figured out every possible way that the situation could go wrong, even inventing obstacles in my mind. As I tried to check on the situation out of panic, more obstacles occurred. My sweet husband kept telling me it would be okay, but my heart was wrecked. We even prayed about it before going to bed, and no matter how much I tried to leave it in God’s hands that we had made the right decisions, I kept letting the fear creep in.
Wise counsel is important, and I should have noted our friends’ concerns and then prayed over their wise words to know God’s direction. Instead I started to panic.
I had a fitful night’s sleep and got up early to check everything and make phone calls to ensure everything was still progressing well. To my surprise, not only were things progressing well, but they actually were much better than I could have even dreamed.
So for 12 hours, I let fear control my head and heart. I did not sleep well, which meant my husband (and the bed cat) did not sleep well. I worried about something that had already been committed to prayer and obedience! How many times have I seen God do incredible miracles? Recently I have been following (and praying for) a former Looking Up Sports player’s miraculous journey in learning to walk again after a horrific accident -(https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F100010133491758%2Fvideos%2F749418565405920%2F&show_text=0&width=560“>Emma Bailey is a walking miracle). There are just so many times God has shown himself faithful, but too often I doubt His goodness.
The Bible lists 365 times where God tells His people to not be afraid. Here is a great article that lists 33 of these verses. Debbie-McDaniel’s 33 verses I think it may be time to memorize a few more of these so I do not let fear creep in.
To Finish Well 