Love Versus Fear

I am drifting today away from the study of Galatians to the daily devotions that I share with Rhonda.

She and I have been working our way through the book 365 Devotions to Love God and Love Others Well.   i like this book because the verses are from both the Old and New Testaments, and the applications are very timely for what is happening today.  Another example of God knowing what we need to hear and when we need to hear it?  Probably!

Anyway....the verse today is this one : "Do not let your hearts be troubled."  John 14:1

I had to smile because this is EXACTLY what I need to read today.  I am tired of being scared of the virus, of violence, of not being able to do things I want to do.

I am tired of distancing myself from others, of not enjoying a meal in a restaurant, of not being able to wander around in Target or Hobby Lobby to just browse.

I am tired of the mixed messages, the fake news, the data that is spewed everywhere and twisted for whatever purpose is being forced upon us by the media.

For example :  I saw an article shared by someone on FB yesterday.  It was attributed to Time magazine.  The headline indicated that the virus was not receding as we were being led to believe, but that it was exploding in many states and was only going to get worse over the summer because (guess why)... Trump had pushed to open things too quickly.  Of course earlier he had been chastised for not taking action quickly enough, but that is another issue.  Anyway, as I scrolled through the article I saw graphs for each state depicting the number of cases of COVID 19 since the end of February to now.  And guess what?  Most of the states were showing decreases in numbers.  Indiana.  Illinois.  Ohio.  Kentucky.  Some of the New England states.  A few bigger states were showing increases - Texas, Florida, California, the Carolinas.  But most of the states were showing decreases in number of cases or leveling off.  

I am shaking my head.

Back to the devotion ---  Jesus tells us this not as a 'there, there, it will be ok' type of message.  He really wants us to trust Him and not be afraid all the time.

This is what I needed to hear today.

Last week was SO horrible for me.  I was petrified.  I was nervous.  I couldn't sleep.  When I did fall asleep, I didn't want to wake up.  It was just awful. 

But this puts everything in a new light.  The suggestion in the devotion is to read the verse as a command.  Trust Him.  Give all the worries over to Him.

The ending prayer is very important, one that I need to remember and pray often:  "I'm tired of being troubled and afraid all the time, Lord. I'm ready to obey your command to 'Fear not.' Set me free!  Amen."