Fear #1: Loneliness

Welcome back!

     I hope your Christmas weekend was amazing and filled with lots of love and laughter :)
-
-
     This morning I looked at the "Verse of the Day" on my phone, and I wanted to share it with you.
     "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
     Something I struggle with is fear. Fear of the unknown; fear of rejection; fear of pain. The list goes on and on.
     As far as facing my fears, there are certain instances where you can't always face the fear up front. There are far too many fears to go into detail with, so for now I'll focus on one of the most prominent ones in my life right now: the fear of loneliness.
     I'm not talking about the worry that God is gonna force me to be single the rest of my life and put on a smile about it. Definitely not.
     I don't always have the greatest relationship with my family, especially my little sister, and that scares me when I think of the future. What if really amazing, Godly men are turned off by the fact I don't have a good relationship with my family? What if I'm an adult and my family were to fall apart. Questions like this begin to surface.
     One of my friend's just tagged me in an Instagram video on Bethel Music's page. This guy was talking about how God guides us where to go and what to do, but He never expects us to go through anything alone and He will never put us through a difficult situation we are not already prepared to handle. The things we experience in our lives are shaping us to handle what He needs us to go through later in life. I bet my friend had no idea I was blogging right now when he tagged me in the post that had so much to do with this post! Crazy how God works, right? Hey buddy, if you're reading this post, thanks for sharing that video with me! :)
     My point of sharing that story with you is this: If you truly do feel like God is leading you to end an unhealthy relationship, mend a broken friendship, take a step of faith, do something out of the ordinary for someone, or you suddenly find yourself in a situation where everything is spinning and seems out of your control. . . pray PrAy PRAY! He knows what He's doing. He has prepared you for this VERY MOMENT! He won't throw you into the pool without first teaching you how to swim. He loves you too much to do that.
     Ok, now I'm getting a little excited about this. God is moving in my heart right now, guys. This is so cool.
     I don't need to fear the future and the possible decisions that God may lead me to make, because right now He's already equipping me to be prepared and ready to handle them, as long as I am willing to prepare myself too. While God can do "immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine," (Ephesians 3:20) we still need to prepare our hearts to be moved by God.
     How is God preparing me now for the future? I can't know for sure. But if I truly start to see Him beginning to tell me to make specific changes in my life I'll look more closely for signs of how He has equipped me for this. It's all about outlook and perspective, my friends.
-
-
     My prayer for all my readers, and everyone else is that they would really see God at work this year! That they would learn to listen to His voice and grow in their faith.
     Remember, we all have our bad days and those times when we lose sight of what really matters. What's important then is to refocus our minds and hearts towards the One who will never fail us!

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
-Ephesians 3:20-21

Sarah