Chapter 17, What are you afraid of? and Chapter 18, The Clean Escape
Wow, what a journey this has been and I'm so grateful to have interacted with all of you during this time. God has certainly been speaking to me often:)
I love Beth's simple Quick Start to security. Trust God. Two tiny words with enormous impact. How different I would feel and behave if I truly acted on those two words. The next question Beth asked really got me thinking...What frightens you? When you feel the insecurity creeping in it is normally driven by fear. I felt like I could identify with every fear she listed: proving stupid, rejection, anonymity, being alone, being unimportant, betrayal, being replaced, disrespect, being hurt, or a pain of any sort. The biggest fear in my life since becoming a stay at home mom is being unimportant. I loved my job and my work and the fact that people had questions for me and came to me for advice and answers. When I became a stay at home mom I still had people coming to me with questions and advice, but they are little so it's on a slightly different level:) I know that is why many times I find myself overcommitted to other activities...I fear being unimportant.
"Trusting God with yourself. With your husband. With your job. With your health. With your family. With your friends. With your threat" (pg 321). "Trusting God to never let our fears come to fruition doesn't get to the bottom of where insecurity lurks. It's too conditional." How many times have we asked God to not let something happen? I had never thought of this conditional trust before. I need to trust God period...because I know no matter what happens he will help me through it, so why fear things that have not occurred?
Beth's questions what are your fears and what if they happened? Did you take the time to think through this? I know one of my fears is losing my husband while our children are still young. So as morbid as it sounds, I took the time to think through what would I do if that happened? And while there would be a large period of grief, loss, sadness and anger I know that God would bring me through it and He has surrounded me with Christian women and friends who would be there for me and my family. I would be okay, because I trust God to see me through no matter what happens. That thought process brings me security, because that fear can no longer take hold of me.
I loved Ps 112:7-8 with "she" added:
[She] will have no fear of bad news; [her] heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. [Her] heart is secure, [she] will have no fear; in the end [she] will look in triumph on [her] foes.
She will have no fear of bad news...this woman does not live in fear of what is to come, but instead feels secure trusting in the Lord.
So, we have fears, what will God do if one of those fears comes to pass? Here is what the Bible says:
perfect everything that concerns you (Psalm 138:8)
work all things together for your good (Romans 8:28)
contend with those who contend with you (Isaiah 49:25)
fight this battle for you (2 Chronicles 20:15)
equip you with divine power (2 Chronicles 10:4)
delight to show you mercy (Micah 7:18)
meet all your needs according to My glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)
give you grace that is perfectly sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9)
be your power in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)
do immeasurably more than all you could ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within you (Ephesians 3:20)
Wow! How can we not be secure as Christian women if we believe all that the Bible says. Look dear sisters on how God works for you and with you!
Now, I don't know about you, but I thoroughly enjoyed the car wash story and could imagine myself in the same type of predicament:) I don't know about you, but I don't want to be driven any more by feelings of insecurity. Beth had some great questions to ask of ourselves: Am I doing this...or buying this...or saying this...or selling this out of any semblance of insecurity? I know I will be asking myself those questions and saying no to things that I may have said yes to in the past.
What a great time it has been this summer studying the Word with all of you from a distance. I pray that God has worked in your life through Beth's book, our discussions, and just by staying in His Word more regularly over the summer months as well. For those planning on coming back to Sonrise in the Fall I'm looking forward to being together again in person!
(This last post is written by Laura Ritterbush, wife, mother, the coupon queen of all coupon queens. She lives in Kearney and is involved in Sonrise Bible Study. I wish you all could meet her in person but she has a great blog about couponing!)
~Just opened this today and thought OH NO, my entry is gone, did not go through. I wrote something a couple days ago! (Laura, you did a great job with the last entry. Did not want insecurity to rise up in you because so far, zero comments!) I think everyone is fading and falling behind in reading, but these last chapters are very good and helpful so hopefully everyone will get to read them later. For sure, the quick start, two tiny words, TRUST GOD have great power... and adding Trust God, Period says it all. I want to do that! :)I laughed all through the car wash story in chapter 18. So funny-it makes me think of the times I hit send and I'm not done with a text message -or hit the wrong car window button in the drive-thru and the list goes on. A young friend of mine and her family got soaked in a car wash when the kids hit the window buttons and then everyone went into panic and they all got a good soaking plus ruined CD's and more! Thanks to all of you for your insight, honesty and wisdom. It has been a good summer read! Blessings, Jean
ReplyDeleteLaura, I have checked this blog everyday for over a week but didn't have anything else to add to your post. Trusting in God with every detail of our life, not just the good, but the bad is something that we have to walk in faith to do. Just this past week, Trent and I faced some news and didn't know how something was going to go. Our security was rattled but then we went back to the knowledge of knowing that we stand on Christ, and He can be moved. I had peace in knowing that what ever was to come was to come, but I didn't have joy. And that's okay. We won't always have joy, but I sure want to always have peace.
ReplyDeleteI loved this post and these chapters of the book. I have wrestled through the premise of trusting God. Period. for several weeks now. Without conditions. It is scary at first, but I realized that was the only answer for me. What else would I do if I didn't trust God completely?! Aside from messing things up royally! There are so many promises in the Word about how God will take care of us...his precious children. My challenge has been in clinging to those promises and believing them regardless of my life circumstances. I, too, have worked through my worst fears to the end...(do all moms with young children fear losing their husbands?)...and it brought me to a place of peace. For 3 years my husband and I have been on a journey of having to trust God without knowing the outcome and no end in sight. He has taught us how He is our daily provision and He provides what we need just when we need it. He is faithful! Thank you for sharing your heart Laura. On a side note, I am just looking into the world of couponing and would love to look at your blog. It is a scary first step! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your posts...I was fighting off insecurity last week:)
ReplyDeleteCristina, my blog is http://gooddealsandmore.blogspot.com and I also teach classes in the area!
Laura