Then God

I should be in bed right now, but I just had to share some quick notes from our Bible study tonight on fear and courage. This topic has been weighing on me a lot in the past few months, so this couldn't have come at a better time.

Let me be honest, I am just about as far from calm as they come. Although I may appear (key word) to be calm in even the most stressful situations, you can be assured that I'm fretting internally. Of course there are times when I'm able to take a rational, balanced stance without getting worked up, but in many cases I'm worrying about an event's outcome or how I'll handle something difficult down the road.

We all know how unpleasant and paralyzing fear can be, and what's even more unsettling is the fact that our sheer faith in the Lord often isn't enough to overpower these negative thoughts.

Beth Moore provided a very fresh perspective on the relationship between fear and courage tonight. So blessed to have heard this message, and I hope my chicken scratch notes will bless you, too!

- Courage is not the absence of fear but knowing that something more important is at stake.
- Courage is when you look your reality in the face and deny it power over you.
- Perfect love casts out fear. Pray for the Lord to treat your most irrational fears.
- The most frequent command in the Bible is "don't be afraid"
- And if (insert your fear here), then GOD. Trust God, period.

Wishing you a wonderful (and peaceful ;)) Wednesday!
xoxo