Carmen Horne

Pursuing Hope Together

A Way to Fear-less When We are Fear-full

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I began this post on fear about two years ago. What in the whirl? How can something I wrote two years ago resonate with me still!?

I am able to just pick up and continue writing because it’s that relevant. So relevant…like the first thing I thought of was me sitting poolside at my sister-in-law’s house a few days ago and decidedly moving myself inside because there were bats (yep, you read that correctly) swooping and flying around the pool. I’m skeered of birds. I watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, when I was a little girl (The babysitter was OK with it. Why not?) and I want them to stay at a beautiful distance from me. You want to get me itchy, feed the birds while I’m sitting in my beach chair trying to relax.

I KNOW they are just as scared of me as I am of them. I KNOW I’m bigger than they are. I KNOW I don’t have love birds trapped in a cage in my house. But still… 

Maybe you need these words today, too. Maybe that’s why I had it in drafts and never published it. It was waiting for me to finish writing it today ’cause you know, timing is everything.

Have you ever just sat dumbstruck and flabbergasted over life? The hits just keep coming. You begin to wonder if there is a big red target on your heart and soul.

There is. Satan has us marked for destruction. If God would have allowed it, he would have ended our lives before we sucked in our first breath of air. Satan is a liar and thief.

Now that thought often gives me a shiver. I can get real worried about what’s next. Just being real here, the prince of darkness can dim my light sometimes by a mere whisper.

Those of us in ministry often feel our target is bigger. But wait, aren’t we all called to be a functioning part of the body of Christ? So there goes that excuse theory.

I’m hoping there are a few of you out there that are shaking your heads with an amen, even if it’s a nervous one.

There are tons (well, a lot) of Bible verses out there addressing being fear-full. Probably one of the most important ones is the reminder that’s it’s definitely not of God. Y’all, read 2 Timothy 1:7  in the Amplified Bible,

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].

One of the ways I’m learning to cope with fear (besides not allowing bats to play in my hair) is Scripture affirmations. I love this Bible verse and the personalized statement from scripture I wrote,

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you. All whose thoughts are fixed on you. Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)

Isaiah 26:3 affirmation

Oh, and maybe another moral to this story is to not put things into your mind that you will probably never get out. I have several things like that and I’m praying God will pull that stuff up by the roots! 

God Will Do It Again

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In this season of sadness mixed with gladness for God’s mercy in my Mom dying, my Bible reading plan marched on and left me. What to do? I debated whether I should start on the current date, or start where I stopped. Now all you type A folks (I’m not quite there, but I resemble it at times. I am a first-born. So there you go.) know that unmarked boxes will drive us crazy so I have decided being behind is much better than unmarked boxes :-D 

The Old Testament is so much like reading a diary that missing any of it makes me think I’m missing something big, deep and probably confusing, Ha!

Also, I really enjoy the OT because a personal relationship can be developed with so many of the people. Some of them we meet only briefly, but others we are allowed to get to know more intimately. They become our people.

Y’all, David is my people. 

Lil’ ol’ whipper snapper David whoops Goliath, is Saul’s BFF, get’s called by God to be Israel’s next king…then he’s not Saul’s BFF…is a great warrior, a loyal friend, and loyal subject to his king.

And, so very human in his behavior. 

I’m deep in his story. Exciting, harrowing, amazing. God saves David’s life time after time. Then I read this:

But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing I can do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me in Israelite territory, and I will finally be safe.” 1 Samuel 27:1 NLT Emphasis mine

David, David, David we are so alike. Am I in your family line?

I read this about David and think, Get ahold of yourself. You just stepped over Saul’s men and stole his sword and water jug “…because the Lord had put Saul’s men into a deep sleep.” 

The more David thinks about Saul, the more he feels the need to make a plan. His plan. What happened between 1 Samuel 26 and 27? He does what I often do, he starts thinking about what could have happened. 

God answers my prayers. He’s merciful and graceful to me. He provides what is needed in a situation, and then I start shaking in my boots because what if He doesn’t do it next time. 

Do you get caught up in that kind of distrust too? I’d like to call it something prettier, less convicting, something that sounds less like sin, but it just smacks of distrust. Sigh.

My comfort comes with the knowledge that God never left David. He might have spanked him a few times for disobedience, but He never left him. He used him mighty and blessed his descendants for a gazillion generations. Jesus was the most beautiful branch in his family tree.

Remember this chorus?

And He’ll do it again
He’ll do it again.
If you’ll just take a look
At where you are now
And where you have been.
Hasn’t He always come through for you?
He’s the same now as then.
Don’t you know God has not changed;
You may not know how,
You may not know when,
But He’ll do it again ~Dawn Thomas (Constance Change) – He’ll Do It Again

God knows us. We are His people too. David reminds us, “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” Psalm 103:14 NASB

Lord, help us live in the peaceful heart knowledge of Your mercy, grace, love, and care. Thank you for Your patience with us. We want to be people who You can say, “They are women and men after my heart.” We ask in Jesus’ name.