on fear.

Thanks for all your sweet words of encouragement and prayer in response to Monday's post. I appreciate them more than I could ever put into words.

I think any time you put out there something like that, the Devil sees a PRIMO opportunity to attack. I think he says something like, "Oh yeah? You have faith God's gonna provide? Well...watch this." and WHAM. He hits you with fear.

This morning, I was inconspicuously reading an article that Lifeway tweeted on one married couple's journey through job loss and the fear just SWOOSHED DOWN ON ME.

What if that's me? What if God doesn't provide a job in 30 days. Am I going to believe He'll provide in some other way? Just the fear that it wouldn't possibly go down the way I want it to go down had me almost in tears.

I know, ridiculous.

I cried out in prayer. Lord save me from this unbelief. I then proceeded to read through some Facebook status updates and read this:

"There is NO WORD for "coincidence" in the Hebrew! Lord You are in control today, You were in control yesterday, and You'll be in control tomorrow! I pray for my family, and any of my FB friends today that are struggling to believe in the midst of pressure & confusion! Be encouraged today! "Without FAITH it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God!" (Rom. 8:28; James 1:1-8;16-18;Mark 6:47-52; Prov. 3:5-6)"

Without faith it is impossible to please God? That's part of Hebrews 11:6. And if I only memorized one scripture when doing Beth Moore's 'Believing God' Bible study last year...that. was. it. It's the verse that showed up every day for a week in the most random places. Not even kidding. 

And then right before I went to lunch, I read this in another friend's status update:
 

"God is weaving a story of His power in our lives. He won't fail us. The Lord is batting a thousand in the category of faithfulness. Contrary to others' opinions or our fears, we aren't about to be His first "oops." As Chuck Swindoll encourages, "God has never missed a runway through all the centuries of fearful fog." - From the book "Finding God's Will" ~ Gregg Matte"

Everywhere I looked I was seeing God saying, "Rebekah - Stop. Being. Full. Of. Fear. Stop it." 

So I went to lunch and decided to look up the word "fear" in my concordance and read some Scripture that had to do with fear. I passed through the "do not fear's" in Deuteronomy and I saw something in Psalm 27. Now, I have to tell you, I think Psalm 27 may be my favorite Psalm. I mentioned verses 13 and 14 back in this post. And...it's just some goodness. 


You know how some Bible's have a little heading over chapters in the text? Well, mine does. For Psalm 27? 

"An Exuberant Declaration of Faith"

Yessirree. David was saying, I will have faith. I will not fear. Because God is faithful. 

Psalm 27 

 ¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation;
         Whom shall I fear?
         The LORD is the strength of my life;
         Of whom shall I be afraid?
 ² When the wicked came against me
         To eat up my flesh,
         My enemies and foes,
         They stumbled and fell.
 ³ Though an army may encamp against me,
         My heart shall not fear;
         Though war may rise against me,
         In this I will be confident.
        
 ⁴ One thing I have desired of the LORD,
         That will I seek:
         That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
         All the days of my life,
         To behold the beauty of the LORD,
         And to inquire in His temple.
 ⁵ For in the time of trouble
         He shall hide me in His pavilion;
         In the secret place of His tabernacle
         He shall hide me;
         He shall set me high upon a rock.
        
 ⁶ And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
         Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
         I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.
        
 ⁷ Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice!
         Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
 ⁸ When You said, “Seek My face,”
         My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”
 ⁹ Do not hide Your face from me;
         Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
         You have been my help;
         Do not leave me nor forsake me,
         O God of my salvation.
 ¹⁰ When my father and my mother forsake me,
         Then the LORD will take care of me.
        
 ¹¹ Teach me Your way, O LORD,
         And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
 ¹² Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
         For false witnesses have risen against me,
         And such as breathe out violence.
 ¹³ I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
         That I would see the goodness of the LORD
         In the land of the living.
          

¹⁴ Wait on the LORD;
         Be of good courage,
         And He shall strengthen your heart;
         Wait, I say, on the LORD!

I just think God is so cool how He hears our hearts cry to Him and He wants to answer us. He put the thoughts in those people's heads this morning to post that on their Facebook. He knew that I would be overcome with fear for a little while. He knew that I check Facebook way too often and would see their status updates. He knew all. these. things. And if He knows all these things, why do I doubt that He knows what will happen on May 9th. My needs then?  

I am a silly frail girl and He is a not silly strong God. 

I just wanted to remind you of that today.