Day 5: "I am with you"

Isaiah 41:10

"fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

(ESV)

Day 4: "About Anything"

Philippians 4:6-7

Day 3: "In Whom We Have Boldness"

Ephesians 3:11-12 

Ephesians 3:11-12 ESV "This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him"

Day 2: "You Who Fear Him"

Revelation 19:5

Revelation 19:5 ESV "And from the throne came a voice saying, 'Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.'”

This is the last verse in the Bible that talks about fearlessness/fearing God. We wanted to start off this new year with the bookends of Scripture to possibly see a bigger picture. The first verse, as we saw yesterday, was a promise to Abram that he would be protected by God and he could trust in Him. This final verse near the end of scripture comes from the context of right before Christ's triumphant return to earth when He will defeat Satan, sin, and death forever, then bring His people home for good in His new heaven and new earth. This is a call to those who fear Him, to praise Him no matter how "small or great" your praise would be. I choose to be in that group of the servants who fear the Lord through all my days, not just near the end of time, but in everything I do. When I fear God, no earthly fear has power over me.

What do you choose?

-M.

365 Days of Fearless

We've heard the claim that the Bible says not to be afraid exactly 365 times. We haven't found that to be exactly accurate but we know that the Bible address fear quite a bit. So, what we'd like to do is share one of those verses with you every day in 2017. Nope, we don't expect to write a whole post every day. [We're not that ambitious] Sometimes we'll just share the verse, sometimes we'll write about it. Sometimes we'll put it on a cool background or write it out in pretty letters but the important thing is that every day you'll get another reminder and another reason, not to be afraid.

Happy New Year!

-M. and L.

Genesis 15:1

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
(Genesis 15:1 ESV)

I love this verse because it seems to be God's response to a step of faith that Abram has just taken. Abram was just offered a huge reward from an earthly thing and he turned it down because of a promise he had made to God. And now God the King of kings and 'possessor of heaven and earth' tells him not to be afraid and promises to give him a very great reward. I'm pretty sure it was a lot better than what the king of Sodom wanted to give him.

When God asks us to give something up he always has something better to give us. Don't get me wrong, he won't always give it right away and what he gives won't always seem better right away. Abram had to wait a long time before he saw even part of the fulfillment of God's promise. Sometimes God will give you something similar to what he asked you to give up like a new ministry or relationship to replace an old one. Even better though, every time we surrender something to God we draw closer to Him as he builds our trust, so when you give something up for God you get to experience more of God and He is better than anything. So don't be afraid to make sacrifices for God because He is better than anything you could give up.
Here are some quotes on the matter from people more eloquent than me:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

-C.S Lewis, The Weight of Glory

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose"
-Jim Elliot