How will you?
How will I challenge myself to get more creative this week? How will I challenge myself to make a new memory to hold onto everyday and make God the center point of every one of those memories // creative endeavors ??
How will I fight to see people better, for who they really are, not who I perceive them to be with my natural inclinations to judge?
How will I get myself and others one step closer to Heaven today?
How will I?
Answer :: freedom.
The freedom of faith. 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in Love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in Love.”
Fear in insecurity: because of what people say // will say. 1 John 4:4-6 “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, whoever knows God listens to God listens to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." My favorite book I have ever read is Uninvited by Lysa Teurkist. She states, “Rejection steals the best of who I am by reinforcing the worst of what’s been said to me.” ― Lysa TerKeurst, Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely. When we live by the lies others proclaim over us, we can only hear the bad, blocking out all the good God says we are (listen to "You know me better" by Stars go Dim).
Fear of loneliness // being without love. It’s so real. 1 John 4:11-12 “Beloved if God so loved us we also ought love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because he has give us of His spirit.” Y’allllll, we can never EVER be alone in this life. He is perfected in us, abiding in us. No matter how lonely of a place we are in we can cling to this, our hope in the hard. He’s always listening, just waiting for you to speak && to listen in return. “Imagine how differently you might approach each day by simply stating: God is good. God is good to me. God is good at being God. And today is yet another page in our great love story. Nothing that happens to you today will change that or even alter it in the slightest way. Lift your hands, heart, and soul, and receive that truth as you pray this prayer: My whole life I’ve searched for a love to satisfy the deepest longings within me to be known, treasured, and wholly accepted. When You created me, Lord, Your very first thought of me made Your heart explode with a love that set You in pursuit of me. Your love for me was so great that You, the God of the whole universe, went on a personal quest to woo me, adore me, and finally grab hold of me with the whisper, “I will never let you go.” Lord, I release my grip on all the things I was holding on to, preventing me from returning Your passionate embrace. I want nothing to hold me but You. So, with breathless wonder, I give You all my faith, all my hope, and all my love. I picture myself carrying the old, torn-out boards that inadequately propped me up and placing them in a pile. This pile contains other things I can remove from me now that my new intimacy-based identity is established. I lay down my need to understand why things happen the way they do. I lay down my fears about others walking away and taking their love with them. I lay down my desire to prove my worth. I lay down my resistance to fully trust Your thoughts, Your ways, and Your plans, Lord. I lay down being so self-consumed in an attempt to protect myself. I lay down my anger, unforgiveness, and stubborn ways that beg me to build walls when I sense hints of rejection. I lay all these things down with my broken boards and ask that Your holy fire consume them until they become weightless ashes. And as I walk away, my soul feels safe. Held. And truly free to finally be me.” ― Lysa TerKeurst, Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely
Fear of failure. God is for us, who can be against us. Yes, you “fail” in the world’s eyes, but while we are waiting, God is working!!
Fear of past // pain. 1 John 4:18 “no fear in love.” Steffany Gretzinger (Bethel Music) has a song called no fear in love (album: the undoing) that I always listen to when I am struggling with some form of crippling pain or fear. I have this terrible repetition in my head of twisting my ankle. I actually visualize it while I am running because it has happened to me so many times and I cringe // shiver at the fact that it could happen again every time I run. So many people have this with the various painful things we all go through in this life (most of you deal with a lot more intense pain than a simple ankle sprain), fear or pain at the thought of that pain repeating itself. We do NOT have to have that dread cause perfect Love casts out fear, ALL fear. MMMMmmm now that is an anthem!!! Like every time we have fear we aren’t loving perfectly and ya we are human so we can’t be perfect, but we do get to rebuke fear every single time it pops up. We get to say mmm no, “no fear in perfect love and my Savior loves me perfectly!” Amen to that. Here’s to living really fear free, really in true love with Jesus.
Also, sidenote :; I felt like I was supposed to say something about Danny Gokey’s song: comeback (go listen!!!). I was driving to the park to go do my run on Monday and I was jamming (to this song). I just told God ahh we did it!! (overcoming depression and doubt and fear and sadness through hard situations, loneliness, and pain) and next I said “well you had already won (on the cross), it just took me this long to really believe it // trust you for it!!” It was almost like God saying it through me but to me. anyways, really cool moment and ya everything in life is NOT perfect and I still struggle with little injuries (I've hardly run the past week cause of an ankle that I've twisted 3 times this month), still struggle with anxiety, but God is still good and showing me that more and more every single day. We do not grow when things are easy, we grow when things hurt, when they push us and our emotions, force us to become stronger, endure more, resilience is something earned not given. head up heart strong.
Blessings,
xoxo Kat