Photo by Jackson Simmer on Unsplash
We stagger through life encumbered by the pressures of everyday problems and phantom concerns.
We are sensitive to slightest slight and the subtlest gesture.
We are quick to take offense and slow to receive healing when offended, much less to extend forgiveness.
We step gingerly into new experiences and tremble at the very suggestion of risk or danger.
We take our cues about our self-concepts from other people's words and evaluations.
We speak our minds and hearts with question marks. We timidly go where many have gone before and wouldn't think of venturing where none have trod.
We live as if we serve an impotent God who is far removed from our life experiences and the daily challenges that come our way.
Our lack of confidence provokes our guilt and that makes us even more timid. We have an unhealthy fear of God that has no resemblance to the reverential fear that He demands. And that fear extends to other people and to the realm of unknown tomorrows.
God, on the other hand, calls us to hold Him in reverence and receive His love with the understanding that if He before us, none can be against us (Romans 8:31).
