TRUST

As I have said in a couple posts, I am studying Beth Moore's Bible study, Esther: It's tough being a woman. God has been teaching me a lot through this Old Testament soap opera. (Honestly, Days of Our Lives has nothing over the book of Esther) In each lesson, she tells a way that it is tough being a woman. One of those is "It is tough being a woman in the tight grip of fear." Gee, do you think I can relate? lol

I mentioned in my last post that you see a theme, called the reversal of destiny in the book of Esther in many ways. Mrs. Moore talked about the way we can turn these sayings around using Scripture. I realized one thing I can do against fear is to wield my weapon. What weapon you might ask? (if you know me, this question would be said in some alarm because the idea of an actual weapon in my hands would be a very scary thing! lol) This weapon I'm talking about, though, can't harm you, but it sure sends the evil one running for cover! It is God's Word. It is THE truth. The Bible tells us that Satan is the father of lies and he is very, very good at deceiving Christians. Granted, sometimes it doesn't take much to get us to believe his lies as we are just looking for an excuse to give in to defeat or sin.

The only way to defeat Satan, though, is to take a page out of Jesus's book when He was tempted. He didn't argue with Satan or try to reason with him or justify anything. He simply quoted Scripture. And it was as effective as kryptanite is on Superman. But the thing is, we can quote Scripture all we want, but if we don't believe it and trust that God is speaking the truth, it doesn't work quite as well.

Then it hit me how all of this is tied together and how it works to free us from the stronghold of fear. TRUTH leads us to TRUST, and TRUST lets us BELIEVE the TRUTH. And the real root of fear is a lack of trust, isn't it? I mean, if I fear being stuck that means I don't trust that God has a plan for me.

There is a verse that says, "Perfect love casts out fear." I think that means that GOD's perfect love casts out fear because we can trust Him with everything. A couple weeks ago, I was sitting in Sunday school class and we were having a discussion about Colossians. The leader said, "It's not all about me." And my first thought was but what about ME? I mean, don't I count for anything? Don't my needs and desires have a place too? Almost immediately the verse came to my mind about GOD meeting all my needs. I didn't have to worry or fear that my needs wouldn't be met because my Heavenly Father, who takes care of the very birds in the air loves me and has the best in mind for me, even when it doesn't appear to make much earthly sense.

But in order to trust, I need to know the truth. It is one of those circular things, but this time in a good way. Ideally, the more I learn truth, the more I will trust in God which will lead me to seek more of His truth which will in turn strengthen my trust, and, well, I think you get the picture. And when I start speaking the truth, Satan plugs his ears and runs away. He is all about deception and illusion. The Truth is too bright a light for him. He prefers the dark.

Jesus IS the light of the world. With Him, there are no shadows of doubt as He shines the light of His truth into the darkest corners of the soul. And doesn't light make our fears so much smaller and more manageable?
~ Blessings, Bronte