FEAR NOT

Every day we wake up with a choice. We can choose to walk in the promises of God that he has set before us or we can choose to be afraid. I believe that “fear” is a choice and is the exact opposite of faith. In fact, Jesus said “perfect love drives out all fear”. What is perfect love except the kind of love that he can give and we can choose to walk in daily. Scripture tells us “God is love” not “God has love”. What that means to me is that its not a matter of whether God has love available to give to us it’s the fact that everything he is is LOVE. It is not by coincidence, I believe, that the Bible has 365 references to fear within its pages. It is God’s way of telling us that there is a new and different word available to us every day that may present us the opportunity to be afraid. 

Here is an example of the fear that I have been confronted with and maybe you can relate to also: “Fear of The Unknown”: As you know Abraham was called to go to a land that he knew nothing about. God was requiring of him to leave home and family to enter into the place of promise and his ultimate destiny. I believe that nothing great ever happens until we are willing to step out into the unknown and walk in faith and trust in God for his provision. We should not look for faith to always make sense. In fact, faith rarely aligns itself with our logic. Remember with God, “his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts”. I have said many times, “life is what’s happening, when we are waiting on life to start. 

My family and I are on the last legs of a journey that will end in us bringing our son Jaeden home from south of Beijing, China. Jaeden is one of only 3 children that have ever been adopted from this small orphanage in a province south of China’s capital city. Jaeden will bring great joy to our already overfilled life of change and adventure. In the natural, it doesn’t make sense that as my wife and I, being just south of our fifties, would once again embark on such a quest. As you know, most of the people our age that we went to High School with are enjoying their grandchildren and have been for some time. Our adoption which will be final as early as 6 weeks from now creates a great opportunity to be afraid for us. Questions like, “what will we do as parents to meet his needs as a child with cerebral palsy”? How will this affect our current family structure and already loaded schedules”? “How will he be accepted”? Questions like these and numerous other ones can swirl in one’s minds, if allowed too. 

Even while writing out those questions that have stared me in the face many times, I realize that they are selfish in that they disallow God into the equation. In fact, what does it really matter in the grand scheme of things when God has already given his best, Jesus Christ, and he has called our family to be a part of his heart, through adoption? If God has called us to do it, then I believe it is upo to God to work it out! In fact, I hope that you will take courage in this “If it is God’s will, it is God’s bill”. With that said , I have decided to come back next BLOG and share some other areas of our lives that fear can attempt to divert us. Until then, Keep the Faith. 

David