24 Hours

Hello again!

I’m excited to get back to writing and THIS time, I truly believe I can stick with it! (That sounded way more like a weight loss program pitch than I intended but anyway)…

It’s been almost a full year since my last post, the one about being 40, which means my goodness!…I am about to be 41! That just hit me! Btw, thank you to my sweet mama for her most loving comment on my “4-4…40!” post. You bring tears to my eyes, Kudie!

Again, a lot has happened in a year but most significant to this site, I have learned so many wonderful things in the Lord. Everyday, I pray for wisdom because I have learned that healing begins with wisdom. And everyday, He is so very faithful to deliver. I continue to grow in the light of His truth and I feel like every year I live, I’m a little closer to living more fully in the peace He calls me to – even peace with myself (that one hasn’t been easy).

This past Sunday, I shared a communion meditation with my church family about fear. When I sat down to write on Saturday night, that’s what was on my mind – not that I was terribly shaken in that particular moment by fear but the topic of fear was fresh on my mind. I always try to trust  that whatever I feel the Lord leading me to write is exactly what I should be writing for that particular Sunday. After the service, as I was busy signing up people for a worship event, a dear friend asked my hubby to ask me if she could have a copy of my meditation. I am blessed when people respond to my meditations because it’s a confirmation in my heart that what was being shared was something someone needed to hear. Father God, I thank you for that.

Dear friend, thank you for asking for a copy and for being an encourager at heart. You are dear to so many and I truly hope you know that!

Here is the meditation:

 

I love the words to the song we just sang:

“Not even now are You defeated. Not even now are we alone. Not even now are you less than Almighty God. Not even – not even now.”

I love singing songs like this; songs that magnify the power and love of God. I love singing them not only because I long to worship Him and am a worshipper at heart-

but because songs like this help me remember, in my frailty, a truth I can so easily forget.

Now, when you think about it, that’s kind of funny, isn’t it? That I would need to be reminded that the God we gather here together on Sundays to worship is a powerful God; a loving God.

Doesn’t it seem like I should know that by now? C’mon, Jess! When will you get it?

But then I remember something else:

We all have an enemy who wants nothing more than for us to be defeated by our fear.

And when this enemy gains any ground in our thoughts and in our hearts, we’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing by recalling the truths of the Word of God – whether we’re singing them, speaking them, or opening up our Bibles and reading them. We are promised that as we do this, we will overcome.

This is the time for us to prepare for communion and as I said last week, I think one of the most fitting ways we can honor our Jesus, is to remember what the cross has purchased for us. But I think there are things we know, in our hearts, the cross has freed us from and yet we still feel bogged down by them.

Now, I know that the reminder of the cross should obliterate my fear but if I’m being honest with you,

that has always been a really hard one for me.

Fear.

I can remember near-panicked prayers as a little girl, with tears in my eyes, asking the Lord to please protect my mom, dad, brother and grandparents. I was terrified of losing them. I was terrified of death.

In many ways, I still am.

And the Enemy knows my Achilles’ heel…he knows where every one of us is most vulnerable and he uses that to his advantage.

I could be ashamed about this; ashamed that someone who so dearly loves the Lord still struggles with fear from time to time but the truth is…

the more honest and open I am about it, the more I see I am not alone.

Just because we’re Christians, doesn’t mean we don’t have fears.

So in this moment before we, once again, share in the Lord’s supper together, I want to quickly encourage you with something that is making a huge difference in my life – in the hopes that it will do the same for you, whatever your struggle may be.

I have learned that, for me, overcoming fear is a daily thing.

This sounds exhausting but it’s really not because what I mean is this…

When I wake up and spend time with the Lord, I now ask myself the same question I felt Him asking me not too many mornings ago and the question was this:

Do you have fear for today?

And my honest answer then and every morning since has been, “no” – meaning for that particular day, when I peered ahead into the next 24 hours, I was really pretty sure that everything was going to be okay. Jennings and I would return to each other later that evening and we’d put our heads on our pillows once again and we might be tired after a long, busy day but we’d be fine. And everyone we love would be fine. I learned that my expectations for a single day, for a short 24 hours, were not fearful at all.

It was only when I’d look too far ahead that the fear would get the best of me again – whatever kind of fear it was; family concerns, illness, finances, whatever.

But as I take things one day at a time, everything looks different and fear begins to lose its control.

And NOW I see how very scriptural that is!

I mean, there is that whole long passage in Matthew 6 where Jesus is essentially saying this:

Don’t be anxious.  You are valued and your Father KNOWS what you need.  So just seek Him first and DON’T worry about tomorrow.

See, the Word of God is powerful. It will disarm the enemy the second we use it.

My church family, you know how much I love to remind us all that GOD IS GOOD. We truly are secure in His love and in the precious promises bought for us on the cross.

But it’s funny, because even Scripture says it will take effort (labor even) to enter into that rest (Hebrews 4:11) because we can often have quite a few reasons to be worried in this life.

For the Christian, it becomes a choice.

Today, and hopefully everyday, we will choose to believe the Word of God.

We take the bread, we take the cup, we sing the songs and we say:

“Yes, Lord I BELIEVE that you are the Christ.”

When we do that, fear must, once again, bow its knee to the name that is ABOVE all names and the only name that saves:

JESUS.

Most Loving Father, Your Word says perfect love drives out all fear. Yours, Lord, is the only perfect love we know. It is the only perfect love there is. So, in faith, in WHO YOU ARE and who you told us you will always be, we draw near to You – through the power of Jesus’ blood – and we release ALL the things that hold us back from being who You have called us to be. Thank you that the precious blood of Jesus Christ will NEVER lose its power. Thank you, Father, that we are set apart and safe in Your care. As we take the bread and the cup today, let every chain fall in the Jesus’ name. It’s in His precious and beautiful name we pray, Amen.