Tuesday Morning Reflection | Be Not Afraid
Tuesday Morning
Here I am, once again, in the wee early morning. I been awake since 4 rocking a baby to soothe and comfort her in her distress. In her sickness. In her wanting mom.
Exhaustion, fatigue, tiredness, sleepiness, yes to all the above. But the rocking I love. The rocking I cherish. Holding our little one dear and close in the embracing of my arms, her eyes gazed upon and seeing her great need of me. Oh how it reminds me of my most recent days and years with the Lord.
My energy perked up and I slept no more. But I am thankful for this very early morning where I sat in stillness and heard the Lord speak to my soul. In the pages where He met me and in the early wee morning where I needed quietness and stillness to hear the sound of His voice.
“Be not afraid.”
The very words he spoke and were repeated of. As I opened the Word, there it was. Those words that were like a slap in my face. Not in that way but more of a jump out of the bible and hit me. More like a “hello Nicole, do you hear me now?” type of way. Two sections, two verses he spoke and one of them being my favorite, Isaiah 55. “Come, everyone who thirsts,” (emphasis added). Come. Those words stopped me in my reading. Those very words are the words he tells me when he speaks to me. Right there I knew he had some things to tell me. My heart still, my mind in peace, and my soul waiting.
I began to pray for us all and be in praise. Praising Him for all He has done and will do and thanking Him in it all. Then there was the second part. Acts 18 verse 9. “Be not afraid,” and there it stopped me in my tracks too. I read more. “for I am with thee.”
In my early morning journaling, He shared with me of what is to come. But to not fear of what is to come, for He is with me til the very end of age.
And as I sat there, journaling what He was telling me, my heart suddenly aligned with the Lord and I began to thank Him in the spirit, praising and worshipping Him in the spirit. I then remembered as I laid my head to rest last night, a flashback of the words He was speaking to me on to prepare me for this small illness that hit our home. He knew ahead of time my heart and mind would try and waver. He knew my heart and mind needed to be reminded of His truth, to remind me that I am anchored in the One, and that fear will try its hardest to paralyze me. To grip me. To chain me once again.
Many times I have heard people tell me to stop fearing. To stop letting fear control and grip me. But here is the honest truth. I don’t. Yes at one point in my life it gripped me so hard, paralyze me and kept me in bondage, but now, I don’t. Now does it try and come back. Absolutely. That is the thing when we get delivered from something, when we overcome something, the enemy likes to use that to his advantage and try to get us enslaved, in bondage, once again to what we already overcame. That’s how the enemy works. That’s his scheme and plan. He has nothing new to use besides our past.
But what a hope we have in Christ that we are victorious in Christ because of He who lives in us. How can we be victorious if we have never battled anything? We can’t. We become victorious when we overcome a battle. When the battle has been won. Through Christ. How can we be overcomers if we have never overcame anything? We can’t.
As I was reading Acts 18 verse 9, it was as if the Lord jumped out His Word and etched it upon my heart to remind me, “come my beloved daughter, you have already overcame this and now let me remind you once again, however many times it takes, for you to be reminded you are more than a conqueror through me in whom I give you strength. Come my beloved daughter and be not afraid, for I am with thee, I never leave thee.” These words… yes that is how he speaks to me. A gentle, stern, loving Father.
A reminder this morning that even Paul, whom I am speaking of in Acts 18, the greatest man known, okay maybe not the greatest but gosh he endured and suffered much, if I had to meet anyone it would be him. Okay back to what I was saying, that even Paul was to fear. But the Lord Jesus Christ told him, in those red letters, those beautiful red letters, “Be not afraid.”
Why does Christ our Lord, Abba Father, tell us be not afraid throughout the whole bible? This is what I journaled as I sensed his very answer. “Because the Lord our God knows we are human and are incapable of being strong on our own. He knows we need His strength to get through whatever we are to face and are facing, but only in the Lord. He knows we are human and are prone to fear. But what a gracious Father we have to remind us, over and over and over again, ‘Be not afraid, for I am with you, til the very end of age.’” This, this is what it’s like to rely on the Father in everything. In our fears, in our worries, in our cares, in our anxieties. We release them onto them every single time, not giving the devil a foothold but instead relying on the only true source of life, who gives us life, who gives us strength, who anoints our head with oil so that our cup overflows. For Abba Father to receive all the glory and credit that He deserves. To point others to Him and Him alone.
He knows we are prone to fear, yet He never leaves us in it.
Yes, I have overcame fear.
Yes, I have the victory.
Yes, it’s true, I have no strength on my own.
Yes, it’s evidently true that Christ lives in me.
And it’s an absolute yes that I must be reminded to surrender, submit, and to yield myself onto YWHW of everyday that I awake.
If I rely on my own self, if I rely on my own strength, if I rely on my own “power,” if I rely on my own sources, if I rely on my own ways, what a sad day it is to see I rely on my own self and not on Christ. Jesus Christ who bore my sin, my shame, my guilt, my wretchedness on that cross, who the same Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is alive today, just so I can have life too. And not just life but ABUNDANT life here, now, and forevermore.
Be not afraid.
What is it that you fear? What has fear gripped you the most on?
As I shared from Sunday Morning’s Reflection and Monday Morning’s Reflection and now today’s, you can see how Christ works in me everyday. I just hope you can see Him at work in you too. As we daily pursue Christ, daily pursue YWHW, may we submit to our Lord and surrender every weighted thing on our shoulders, at the throne of grace and at the feet of Jesus. He is able to carry it all.
Whatever you are facing.
Whatever you are enduring in.
Whatever makes you fear.
Bring it to the Lord and remind yourself of His truth. His truth is our sword, one of the armor pieces we need daily, to pierce through the thoughts and lies so we can mantle on the truth of Jesus Christ.
Lay it at the feet of Jesus. I promise you He can handle it. Nothing is too much for Christ to hear nor too much for Him to handle. Pour your heart out to Abba Father and be reminded that it is only He that can carry you through what you’re facing now and removing, dismantling all fear.
What is on your heart and mind that needs His attention?