I sit here close to tears. I heard from a friend who is currently on the World Race in Africa. They are struggling. They can feel Satan’s presence all around them and they are struggling.
Hearing this makes me afraid.
It makes me afraid of failure, pain, no comfort, sadness, and many more things that could go wrong on this journey. I am afraid that I will not be able to feel God as strongly as I want to/ need to. I am afriad that I will be horribly homesick. I am afraid that I will get sick away from home and that I will be miserable. I am afraid that people will move on without me back home. I am afraid.
However, I feel God pressing on me to share this: We should be afraid. We are fighting a battle. There will be failure, there will be loss, there will be little comfort and sadness. Sometimes we will not be able to feel God, even though He is ALWAYS there. We will be homesick sometimes and we will get sick. People will move on.
However, it is ok, even good to be afraid.
It tends to make things more real than they seemed before. It puts things in perspective. It pushes us and makes us turn to the one who can strike fear out of our hearts and into the hearts of the enemy.
Being afraid is OK.
However, in saying this, I have to add this: staying in fear is not ok. We are protected, we are loved. Life is hard sometimes, but not so much so that we should be living in fear of the unknown, or even the known. I have heard somewhere that in the Bible, it says the phrase “fear not” 365 times. Now I am not totally sure if that is true, but either way, it is on the Bible enough to give us the comfort of knowing that we have an all powerful God who loves us.
He cares about us. Even though He might stretch us and let us learn or struggle, He loves us. He will protect His flock.
So as I continue to embark on this crazy journey for my great King and Protector, I will rest in the fact that He holds me in His great, big, kind hands.
I would like all who read this to pray for me, my team, and all of the other missionaries out there. Pray for peace, encouragement, and joy in their fear, because ultimately, their fear means that they are doing something right. It means that they are doing God’s work, and therefore the Devil is attacking them to try to get them to no longer share the truth.
I am so eternally thankful for all those who have encouraged me in this, and I am so thankful for the Racers that have gone before us and that are out there right now, for inspiring us and letting us know that yes, things will be hard, but hard is good.
Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you or forsake you.”
