FEAR

Fear is one of my worst enemies.  I hate how it just creeps in out of nowhere!  For the last couple of days, I have been randomly annoyed by fear.  Sounds funny to say it that way, but that is how I feel.  I really shouldn't shrug it off because sometimes those "random annoyances" plant seeds.  If I don't throw them out immediately, they might start growing roots, and then sprout forth in my actions!

I do not want to be motivated by fear!  I find that fear keeps me distracted mentally, steals my joy, and paralyzes me.  All terrible!  I want none of it.

I love this.  1 Peter 3:6 "...do not fear anything that is frightening."

Psalm 112:7 "He (the righteous) is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD."

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

It's not like we need to lie to ourselves and live in denial about the fact that bad things are guaranteed to happen.  We need to TRUST!  Trust that He will never leave us.  Trust that He will sustain us.  I almost feel ridiculous that I should struggle with trusting Him, but at times I battle.

I like these quotes from Oswald Chambers:

"How much of our security and peace is the outcome of the civilized life we live, and how much of it is built up in faith in God?"
"Unbelief is the most active thing on earth; it is a fretful, worrying, questioning, annoying, self-centered spirit.  To believe is to stop all this and let God work."
"All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God."  

(Bible quotes ESV;Oswald Chambers quotes from In the Presence of His Majesty)