Drowning   https://www.flickr.com/photos/millervintage/5328740765

Life is hard.
Fear grips us by the throats choking the life God intended out of us. We walk looking over our shoulder for perceived dangers or sit frozen in seeming safety rather than stand and step out and face the unknown. We had rather be miserable in the known than risk finding fulfillment in the unknown. I know this….. when the thought of rising and moving into the blackness of the unknown makes your heart pound in your chest until you swoon and sway and almost pray the earth would swallow you up.

Facing our fears never gets easier.
As the New Year dawned I searched for a word to guide my year. What would it be? Did it even really matter? LIfe has been gray for a very long time. LIfe lived on autopilot: Doing the tasks. Making deadlines. Showing up. Just keep breathing. I prayed more than one day for the Lord to call me home. His answer has been an emphatic, “No.” No explanation of purpose. Just, “No.”

A Word to Guide my Year  “FEARLESS”

I have studied all the Word has to say about “fear not,” and how fear is me believing the enemies lies. But how, in the name of God the Almighty do I walk this out? The Holy Spirit carried me to the word fearless. What does fearlessness look like? Did I begin on the backside. Should I have asked what being fearless looks liked first? https://www.treadingwatertiljesuscomes.com/author-biographies/yvonne-jones/

In Hebrew there are three transliterations for the word we translate fearless:

• נוֹעָז (no’az) = something like daring, bold, audacious
• לֹא פּוֹחֵד (lo poched) = literally “doesn’t fear”
• עָשׂוּי לִבְלִי חָת (asui livli chat) = this is an idiom that is difficult to translate literally. It means something like “made without fear” or “done without fear” https://www.quora.com/What-is-fearless-in-Hebrew

How I want to be daring, bold, audacious, made without fear, and done without fear.

Scripture gives us a good picture of what this looks like when lived out daily:
Psalms reminds us we are confident (Ps 27:3), not easily dismayed (Isaiah 41:10), our trust is in God (Ps 56:3-4), who will never leave or forsake us (I Chron 28:20). II Tim 2:7 tells us God gives us a spirit of power, love and self-control; the ability to stand firm (II Cor 26:13), to speak boldly to proclaim the gospel (Eph 6:19), to be content (Heb 13:5-6), and Philippians encourages us by explaining that all we go through is to advance the Gospel (Phil. 1:12-14).

Christ final revelation includes this promise: all our tears will be wiped away, there will be no more death, mourning, pain, or crying. (Rev 21:1-17)

This is the picture I want to grow into this year. For the interior of my soul to match the exterior persona. This is the idiom I believe best represents the spirit of fearlessness: Made without fear. For GOD gave me a spirit NOT of fear but of POWER AND LOVE AND SELF-CONTROL. He will strengthen me, help me, and uphold me in His righteous right hand. (II Tim 1:7 & Isaiah 41:10)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKF6ghfcQic

Head Above Water by Avril Lavigne

Treading on,