Do not Fear

Have you ever wondered about the opportunity window? You know those windows in time where if you decide to go ahead and take the chance of opportunity presented before you, not just the chance you choose but the chance that could lead you either in the direction that God has placed before you or the direction of your choosing that has the potential to lead you off course and in turn teach you one of those “learn life the hard ways” lessons.

Not just a chance but a decision, the decision or choice to do something you know deep down is the perfect choice. If you take one breathe or one step turning away from that opportunity you miss the mark forever.

That just happened to me, and has happened to me many times. I wonder if I keep walking by those windows pretty soon there will be no chance of redemption. But knowing my God he has a way of leading us right back to him and on the right path once we decide to lay down our desires, our wants, and our needs. Look up to him and tell him I will go, I will obey, I will listen. Denying the very existence of our will that he has given us. When we give him our whole selves and relinquish our free choice it is then that we could possibly never miss those moments of opportunity windows. In a perfect world maybe. But those windows open and close day after day. Sometimes we decide to go through sometimes we pass by only allowing ourselves to enjoy the fresh air that comes through but too afraid to actually venture through and taste the seed of that aroma.

One day I hope to gain enough courage to go through those windows and actually trust the Lord with my actions and not just my words. Why should I hesitate?

After those moments of opportunity I wonder if I have what it takes to do what I love.

If I ignored all my fears and actually ignored all my hesitations where would that lead me? Would I still be in the same place I am today? Would I be more confident? Would my path seem more clear? Are my inhibitions keeping me blind. Unable to see where my feet are going. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find me says the Lord in Matthew. Why do I still question? What am I so afraid of? What is holding me back from walking day by day into his peace and lovingkindness. Why am I afraid of man?

Lord you hold my every moment and you heal all my disease you walk with me through fire. I believe. And yet I am so afraid, I am so hesitant, I question.

Lord I seek you.

The Lord wants me to trust him with fuller abandon then I ever have before. To turn to him more then I ever have before. Because he will protect me, he will guide me, and he will show me. Do not fear he tells me; I love you he tells me. You are my Child. I will hold you and hide you follow me and you will be ok. DO NOT FEAR. do not fear.

Hope

You’re the one who reminds me that I was never good enough

That I was never pretty enough

Damaged goods

The broken pieces that I used to pick up every day that were left over from the shattered pieces of my heart.

You reminded me that I didn’t matter

You reminded me that I was better alone because then I would never have to open up and share my scars with anyone else.

You’re the one that also makes my heart alive again.

You’re the one that is all wrong for me at least I presume

Why do I always fall for you, over and over again

Then I am back to kneeling on the ground weeping over the broken pieces that I tried to piece back together

Then I saw the one, riding valiantly on a white horse, showing in his face a vow to protect me and give me a new heart. One heart that could belong to him forever. I saw justice, and peace. I saw my Hope.

He became my healer

He became my deliverer

He became my restorer

He became my savior

He became redeemer

He became my lover

He became everything that I was looking for

My hope

What is hope?

Hope has recently been redefined in my life. I used to think that the desires that I had were linked to what I hoped for. I used to think that if God said in his word, "that he grants the desires of our hearts" I could hold on to that promise and that would give me what I hoped for. That everything in my life was linked to that promise. Whether it be hoping for security, a job, a career, a passion to change the world, a dream to have children, a dream to share my life with one man for the rest of my life, to have great friends, to adopt children, to make a mark on this world that would bring glory to my Father in heaven.

One night, one room, one group, one person, one book, one chapter changed that view forever. My eyes were opened and my heart was set free to see the truth. That our only hope is in Christ Jesus our Lord and he is our living, undefiled, and everlasting hope that is the only answer to our deepest needs and desires. He is at our core once we choose to believe in him as our savior. He redeems us with his steadfast love and faithfulness. Always persuing us and rescuing us.

He is all we need. when we realize that he is our everlasting hope the only one worthy of our praise and hope we don't need to believe and wait for anything else to happen in our lives that gives us meaning and significance. The lord is our core he gives us purpose and meaning and life.

1 Peter 1:3-9, 20-25

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

5who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6In this you Rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

7so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

8Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

v. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake,

21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

23since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but if imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

24 For "All flesh is like Grass and all its glory like

the flower of grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord remains forever."

25 And this word is the good news that was preached to you