From Fear to Faithfulness

When that fear comes in, the fear that you will never get over this, you will never grow out of this, and you will always be a slave to this. That what you did will haunt and debilitate you the rest of your life, that what you keep doing will prevent you from ever moving forward and becoming anything. For you always do the thing you hate.

When that fear comes in. The fear that there is no grace, no mercy, no complete forgiveness, for you. That it is hopeless. And you are hopeless. Know that it is not true! Not one bit of it!

You have a Saviour Who calls you by name (Isaiah 43:1), because He loves you (1 John 4:10), and you are His (Malachi 3:17; John 17:10)! And nothing can ever separate you from Him (Romans 8:38-39).

For don’t you know? God has you exactly where you are to be, with exactly the right problems and struggles and temptations you have, all so you can know Him. Don’t you know? He knows exactly what He is doing in you, to make you beautiful (Isaiah 60:9). He knows what it takes for you to have Him with your whole being, completely.

And God is faithful; He will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

So it’s okay to be weak. It’s okay to struggle and fall apart and crumble, again! It’s okay for it all to feel like it’ll never end, like that thorn in your side will never leave. It’s okay. Because God is faithful, and He knows what He is doing to make you beautiful.

So you see it. Where you realize you are stuck is where you finally let Him in, so He can show you His salvation. And where you see your on-going place of despair is where you finally know your need. It’s where He can show you your weakness, so you can know Him. There is where.

Where you see your weakness as strength, and your poverty as the blessing, because through it all, you know Christ and the power of His resurrection in you (Philippians 3:10). And through it all, you begin to see that freedom is possible, only in the surrendering, because of the despair, so that the power of Him Who is the Faithful One, can be reality in you! It’s where you move from fear to faithfulness, because God is faithful!

****

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 ESV

“…Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” - Romans 7:24-25