False Evidence Appearing Real (FEAR)

Fear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time to think a moment we would see that everything Satan says is founded upon a falsehood.

– A. B. Simpson

Seeing that a pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness.

– John Calvin

Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.

– Corrie Ten Boom

How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.

– Florence Nightingale

Fear is a self imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love.

– Rick Warren

The only known antidote to fear is faith.

– Woodrow Kroll

Faith, which is trust, and fear are opposite poles. If a man has the one, he can scarcely have the other in vigorous operation. He that has his trust set upon God does not need to dread anything except the weakening or the paralyzing of that trust.

– Alexander MacLaren

Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable.

– Harry Emerson Fosdick

Our lives are full of supposes. Suppose this should happen, or suppose that should happen; what could we do; how could we bear it? But, if we are living in the high tower of the dwelling place of God, all these supposes will drop out of our lives. We shall be quiet from the fear of evil, for no threatenings of evil can penetrate into the high tower of God.

– Hannah Whitall Smith

Where fear is present, wisdom cannot be.

– Assorted Authors

Hope is like the cork to the net, which keeps the soul from sinking in despair; and fear, like the lead to the net, which keeps it from floating in presumption.

It’s wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

– Helen Keller

I’m fairly certain I haven’t written much about fear but recently was made aware of a situation in which fear was involved.

I wouldn’t say I’m the bravest most courageous person in the world, however, I do place total and complete trust in my Heavenly Father (which eliminates a lot of fear.) It can be a little difficult for me to wrap my brain around having such a level of mental fear since I don’t typically operate out of a fear-based mindset.

Now I’m becoming aware that some individuals are quite the opposite. Some people allow their fear to control their life and their every thought. In extreme cases, the fear may even cause them to hurt ones close to them.

I recently was on the receiving end of someone else’s fear. I won’t get into the specifics, but a person’s fear-based actions were directed at me and honestly hurt me. After dealing with the disbelief for a couple of days (and a situation I never saw coming) I decided to continue to pray about the situation and those involved and let it go. I am truly sad for those who are affected and will continue to be affected by this fear unless this person discovers the antidote to overcoming their fear which is faith.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and thatHe is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

~Hebrews 11:6

Either we trust God or we don’t. Either we believe God is taking care of us or we don’t.

I PERSONALLY KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE THAT BAD THINGS HAPPEN IN LIFE THAT WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

But does that mean we should give up on trusting God? Does that mean we should try to obsessively control each and every detail of every aspect of our life to the point of being miserable? Do we think we know best, that we know better than God? Has the worry and the fear and the anxiety become an idol in our lives?

Even if we truly believe we can control (due to our fear) every minute detail, the truth is that we really and truly are not humanly able to do that. We cannot add a minute to our lives by worrying.

It is living in bondage to try and micromanage our own lives and the lives of those around us due to fear.

It is not God’s will for us to live that way.

If you have experienced or are experiencing such overwhelming fear, please talk to your Heavenly Father who dearly loves you and does not want you to live under the weight of fear. Consider talking through things with trusted Christian friends or family members or even Christian counselors who can help you process your fears and feelings. There is absolutely no shame in that. For some it may take courage to take that first step, but in the end it will be worth it!

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.~John 16:33

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” ~ Isaiah 41:10

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” ~ 2 Timothy 1:7

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” ~ 1 John 4:18

“But now, this is what the Lord says…Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” ~ Isaiah 43:1

YOU ARE HIS AND HE LOVES YOU!

Believe in that truth.

Rest in that knowledge.

Trust Him.

Your friend,

Tiffany

Heaven: The Ultimate Vacation Destination

My pastor’s sermon yesterday was about Heaven. He talked about what Heaven really is. It is a real place prepared for people who have a relationship with Jesus.

Christians have a dual citizenship – on earth and in heaven – and our citizenship in heaven ought to make us better people here on earth.
– Warren W. Wiersbe

He discussed the basic, probably mostly well-know fact among Christians, which is that we can’t get to Heaven by good works. But do we really believe that and live that way? What does our calendar, bank account, the way we use our natural giftings or talents say? Do we really live and act as though our relationship with Jesus is our most important priority?

Let heaven fill your thoughts instead. Because when you do, everything on earth gets placed in its proper perspective.
– Greg Laurie

When we are planning to take a vacation, we think and dream about it. We study the location we plan to travel to. We learn about the area-what activities we will do there, what it looks like, the route we will take to get there, etc. Much like planning for a vacation, our lives should reflect that we are planning to travel to Heaven.

Surely it is not wrong for us to think and talk about Heaven. I like to find out all I can about it. I expect to live there through all eternity. If I were going to dwell in any place in this country, if I were going to make it my home, I would inquire about its climate, about the neighbors I would have — about everything, in fact, that I could learn concerning it. If soon you were going to emigrate, that is the way you would feel. Well, we are all going to emigrate in a very little while. We are going to spend eternity in another world. … Is it not natural that we should look and listen and try to find out who is already there and what is the route to take? – D.L. Moody

We wait with anticipation and count down the days until our vacation. Everyone around us knows we are going on vacation! We wait with excitement, often impatiently! We go shopping for all necessary items we will need for the trip. We have a hard time focusing on much else because we are so looking forward to our vacation!

Our creator would never have made such lovely days and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.

– Nathaniel Hawthorne

As we are preparing for our vacation, we don’t want to forget one of the most important and honestly very basic of things:

We have to make a reservation.

If we forget to do that, all the dreaming, planning, and preparing won’t matter at all.

How do you make the reservation? You call/email/communicate with whomever is in charge of the condo/hotel/house rental or whomever represents it. They give you instructions to follow in order to ensure you can stay there. If you don’t follow the instructions, you can kiss your vacation goodbye.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. – C.S. Lewis

The hills and valleys of Heaven will be to those you now experience not as a copy is to an original, nor as the substitute is to the genuine article, but as the flower to the root, or the diamond to the coal.
– C.S. Lewis

The cool thing about Heaven is we don’t have to pay for the trip. The cost has been covered by our Heavenly Father through Jesus.

So after the planning, preparing, making reservations, we have to wait for the day of departure to arrive. When that day arrives we set off for our glorious vacation. But did we consider another very important part of our trip? The question of Who will be there when we arrive?

That fact can totally make or break an earthly vacation. Will we be spending our vacation with our family, our friends, or both? If it is our family members, or people closest to us, we may have already had the opportunity to spend time with them beforehand, spend time in their presence. Often, we don’t have to wait until we arrived on site for our vacation to be in their presence.

The presence of God is what makes Heaven Heaven.

~Pastor Bill Bryan

As Pastor Bill stated, God’s presence is ultimately what makes Heaven Heaven. The coolest thing of all? We can experience the Lord’s presence right now! We don’t even have to wait to get to Heaven.

How do we experience God’s presence now? Talk to Him (pray), think about Him (reading His Word helps to do this), worship Him (verbal affirmations, singing, etc.)

Lucifer (Satan) was created to worship God. When he failed to do that, God created us. God gave us the free will to worship Him.

~Pastor Bill Bryan

The fact that our heart yearns for something Earth can’t supply is proof that Heaven must be our home.

– C S Lewis

Have you ever noticed that being in the presence of certain people fills our hearts with joy. It is really almost an indescribable experience. (Obviously this is not the case for all people we are around. 😉) Often we don’t care where the vacation destination is or what we are doing if we are spending time and communicating with our closest family or friends. The warmth, light, and love certain individuals exude touch and fill our own hearts with the same. But those feelings pale in comparison to the Holy Spirit and the light He fills us with.

Suddenly, I was enveloped in this brilliant golden light. The light was more brilliant than the light emanating from the sun, many times more powerful and radiant than the sun itself. Yet, I was not blinded by it nor was I burned by it. Instead, the light was a source of energy that embraced my being.
– Ned Dougherty

We honestly can’t even begin to imagine the wonders, beauty, and magnificence of Heaven. The grandeur of our trip to Heaven far outweighs any vacation we can take on Earth. Our purpose here on Earth is to truly worship God while traveling to Heaven and share this with others so they can do the same.

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

1 Corinthians 2:9

Earth is only a pale version of heaven, not the other way around.

– Greg Laurie

This earthly body is slow and heavy in all its motions, listless and soon tired with action. But our heavenly bodies shall be as fire; as active and as nimble as our thoughts are. – John Wesley

We are just travelers passing through this Earth and all the vacations we enjoy here are such tiny, fractional bits of the glorious, wondrous Home of Heaven, where we will actually see Jesus face to face.

I’m so thankful His presence is with us even now. It gives us a small taste of all that is to come and is waiting for us in our eternal Home.

Your friend,

Tiffany

PS. We sang the following song during worship yesterday at church. I love it! Enjoy!

https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=abba+i+belong+to+you

An Encouraging Thought

I originally posted the following blog a little over two years ago. Lately, I’ve been thinking a good bit about purpose…probably because of the new year, discussions about resolutions, etc. There have been times when I struggled with purpose and understanding the “whys“ of life. The thought came to mind more than once lately of how much I’m encouraged and even inspired by those who share their stories, struggles, and how they’ve made it through hard circumstances with God’s help. I’ve been blown away at times by others sharing how something I’ve shared has encouraged them! It’s totally God’s hand at work-nothing I’ve accomplished alone.

Today I want to encourage you, yes you, to continue to share your story- in writing or otherwise. While you are doing so, look for the little ways God reveals He is at work in your life. You may be shocked at just how real and ever present He is. Don’t worry if you are in a season like Frodo where he ”wished the Ring had never come to him.” We don’t always get to choose the situations that come to us in this life, but God promises to use the hardest of circumstances for His glory, if we will allow Him to! I hope you enjoy the following and pray you experience God’s presence continually no matter the circumstance. Blessings!

Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)

My husband and two older kids were watching Lord of the Rings recently, and this quote caught my attention, again. I remember it making an impression on me the first time I watched The Fellowship of the Ring, and this time I stopped again when I heard it and reflected on the meaning. We don’t get to choose what circumstances life throws at us at times. It reminds me of a cross stitched quote my mother had hanging in her bedroom years ago. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” If you’re like me, just thinking of that makes you nervous! How will we know what to accept and what to change? The answer is in trust.

We often don’t get to decide what cards we are dealt in life. Sometimes the game of life seems to deal us good cards, and sometimes it feels like we get only the bad. We want to fix everything, to make everything right, but that is not always possible. Some things cannot be changed no matter what we do. If we’ve prayed about it, and are following God’s leading, really all we can do is trust God and keep moving forward. We don’t have to worry about deciding what will and won’t happen in our lives, we can leave it up to God! Let Him decide that, let Him allow the things He wants to happen in your life. All we have to do is use the time, talents, and treasures He has given us. Is it easy? No! Do we always understand? No! Did God allow the circumstances that are happening in your life right now? Yes! All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28).

Time. Sometimes it feels like it’s dragging and flying at the same time. It’s what our lives are made of. We only have a limited amount- say 100 years if we’re lucky. Not to sound all gloom and doom, but life goes by faster than we think and we really don’t know how much time we have here.

“All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us”.

That makes me not want to waste time doing unimportant things. It makes me want to be kinder, to love and give more. To not worry as much. To make sure I’m fulfilling God’s purpose in my life.

I love the way Sam, Frodo’s friend, stays with Frodo throughout his journey with the ring. Whether Frodo fully realizes Sam’s devotion or not, it is obvious to the viewer that Sam is a true and loyal friend. I think Sam is a reminder that God sends encouragement when we need it and He makes sure we know we aren’t ever alone.

The situation we find ourselves in that we have no control over was meant to happen. Remembering that brings us peace. It will all make sense eventually, if not in this life, in the one to come!

There is hope and joy in simply knowing you are living out your purpose. It was hard for Frodo to see the hope and joy in his situation when he was carrying the heavy burden of the ring. We all have a burden of some sort. Think about what burden you “wish had never come to you”.

All the human emotions you feel are normal. But remember, there are other forces at work besides the bad ones, there is good at work, too! God is in control of our lives if we’ve put our trust in Him. Our “burden” didn’t catch Him off guard or take him by surprise. He’s working when we can’t even see it and “that is an encouraging thought”.

Proverbs 12:25

Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, But a good word makes it glad.

Matthew 11:28-30

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light”

Your friend,

Tiffany