The last month has been a blur, a happy one but nevertheless events and time have run together with hardly a moment to breathe in between! Our granddaughter was born a month ago tomorrow, a distinct answer to prayer since her mother had been put on high risk for a premature delivery more than four months prior to the birth. And what a joy she has been to all of us already, blessing our lives with pure delight. Thank you for prayers for her and for her mother.

This is the reason I have failed to post to this blog for the past several weeks and while a good reason it has resulted in my neglect of it (and all my writing) as I struggled to help my family deal with this situation. Not to mention get reacquainted with my sweet husband, who has gotten the short end of things for such a long time lately! Now I’m finally ready to get back into the swing of things and will redouble my efforts to post weekly again.

As I did my Quiet Time this morning I was studying a book I read recently which has impressed me greatly. It is Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear by Max Lucado, and if you have not read it I highly recommend it. Unfortunately I find myself guided in many of my decisions and daily routine by fear more than by faith. I have to constantly do battle with my enemy to allow God’s voice to drown out all others including my own, or I would never accomplish anything out of fear….of failure, of wrong choices, of defeat, of pain or suffering, of rejection. Ah, rejection, that ten-thousand dollar word for writers! Literally.

One of the questions asked in the book's study guide which I spent quite a bit of time contemplating today was where I most need God’s mercy in my life right now. The answer is, in multiple ways! But seriously, I wrote in my journal, “To conquer my fear of the future with confidence in the present because of the past.” And that about sums it up. I seem to live in fear of what seems certain to transpire as well as what could perhaps happen at some point. This is not how a Christian is supposed to live and I have no intentions of remaining entrapped in a vicious cycle of pain and defeat, which is the counterfeit plan my enemy has for my life. I choose, instead, to live above that muck not because of who I am but because of whose I am. God has a plan for my life which is not for harm but for good (Jeremiah 29:11) so why fear that? He has never once let me down and I have no reason to believe He is going to start now. My timing and choices may not be His but that doesn’t mean He has abandoned me or failed to keep His Word. Quite the contrary.

To conquer fear I must claim Scripture, for then I am refuting Satan’s lies as Jesus did. If He loved me in the past and will love me for eternity, why on earth do I fall for the deception that He doesn’t love me now? Instead I choose to stand firm and fight the battle against fear rather than giving in to it and living in defeat. My prayer is that you will join me!