So I just finished reading two and a half books… travelling brings out the reader in me. I read “Always Enough”, by Heidi and Rolland Baker. Anyone who’s following us in Mozambique might want to take a look at that read, since we’re working alongside Iris Ministries here (the Baker’s ministry). Just going to church yesterday made it totally clear that there is a revival happening in Mozambique, and we’re right in the middle of it.
After that book, I picked up a book I brought from the States. I’d bought it a week before we left, thinking that it would be a good book for women. But before now hadn’t been the timing to read it. Well, this time, when I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. It’s by Lisa Bevere, and called “Out of Control and Loving it.” Pretty much a woman’s read, but just as worth it. In practical ways, it lays out why and how we, as women, hold ourselves back from having real intimacy with Christ. FEAR. And the results of fear… anger, gossip, etc. Any kind of negative characteristic is a good red flag that there is some kind of fear in your life. If it shows up, there’s definitely something blocking intimacy with God.
And if we have fear in our lives, we tend to not trust God, which ultimately, puts us back in the driver’s seat *or so we think). It’s called a spirit of fear, so the spirit’s in control, not us. By putting our faith in Jesus, he wants to make us more fully us than we’ve ever been. If we let fear control us, we can’t be who God made us to be… we can’t doll out the power, the love, and the sound mind God has intended for His children to have.
Anyhow, my mind has been on that for a few days… what am I afraid of? Am I afriad to trust God? Am I afraid of man, and what they’ll think (she’s a freak!)? Am I afraid of losing my identity? Am I afraid of what God’s power, love, and sound mind looks like?
NO!!! I want it all! I want to be more fully alive than I’ve ever been. I’m ready for God to rock my world in Africa. I rebuke fear, and ask for it all! All that God has already offered, I want to take hold of.
What are you afraid of?
