Fear Not!
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Are you paralyzed because you don’t know how others will respond? You can’t see the future?
Wow. I really needed this today, Cap’n Dave. Thank you!
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Begging Jesus for Sleep
Last week I endured one of my (relatively common) stretches of insomnia. It was, as always, incredibly hard to bear. If you have never struggled with acute, lasting sleeplessness (the kind that goes for hour after hour, night after night), please know that I am thrilled for you. I rejoice as I leave the room with my sleeping-soundly husband and walk past the room with my sleeping-soundly children, accompanied by my formerly-sleeping-soundly Golden Retriever (who always tries to keep me company during my marathon stretches of being up all night—but even she, ultimately, collapses in sleep at my feet after a certain amount of hours). One of my dearest friends…
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How to Overcome Fear (by Dr. Andrew Selle)
I once served on a conflicted church intervention team with an extremely gifted mediator and counselor: Dr. Andrew Selle of Vermont’s Christian Counseling and Mediation ministry. We have stayed in touch over the years and occasionally I receive his ministry’s newsletter. All of them are excellent! Including today’s. Dr. Selle has graciously given me permission to share it with you: The Difference of Bold Faith: Overcoming Crippling Fears in Peacemaking 2013 Peacemaker Conference Greetings, friend. This has been one of those summers that really, really flew by, and it’s past time to get another news & prayer letter out! As I write, Dawna & I are preparing for the Peacemaker…
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God can and does use weak, sick, discouraged, beat-down, lonely, struggling saints, who cry to him day and night, to accomplish amazing things for his glory.
I remember listening to this years ago and being blown away by what John Piper taught about the life of David Brainerd: Oh, That I May Never Loiter On My Heavenly Journey! (If you, like me, prefer to read rather than listen, the entire message is also transcribed on that link. One of the many reasons why I love DesiringGod.org so much.) I heard this message before I ever read D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones’, Spiritual Depression, and it was the first time (other than a snippet of a Focus on the Family broadcast from the 1980’s) that I had ever heard the word “depression” associated with a Christian. I resonated deeply…
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Proof-texting or Wise Application?
I thoroughly enjoyed this lengthy David Powlison article from last month: Are you using that text well? Or are you proof-texting? Here is just a snippet to encourage you to click through and read it all: Proof-texting can also happen when Christians seek to help and encourage other strugglers. In principle, wise biblical counseling will seek to unfold the specific, wide-ranging relevance of Scripture to life’s problems. But when someone “throws a Bible verse at a problem,” the criticism of proof-texting is just. Scripture is not being used wisely. Let me give an example of how the same Bible text can be used either in a proof-texting way or in…
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“My fears feel like necessary defenses against being hurt …”
Whenever my women’s events carry over from a Friday to a Saturday, Fred and I always invite the women to respond to three questions in writing (based on the topic of the event—peacemaking, Fear Not!, teens, etc.) and then we spend a significant amount of time reading through each response and then praying for all of the women. Over the years, we have done this for thousands of women—I would say easily 10,000+—and we have kept every single prayer card that we have ever received. I have boxes of them! I just can’t throw them away … they are such precious glimpses into the hearts of these dear women. One card…
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Service Starves Worry (and Depression)
I can’t remember if it was David Powlison or Tim Keller (probably it was both of them) … but I have paraphrased one of their teaching points to (hopefully) repeat it to myself often and thus, engrave it in my memory: Service starves worry. In fact, I would say the same thing about depression: Service starves depression. Even in your darkest, toughest season of life, there is always some way to give yourself away.
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And then a GIANT SPIDER crawled right over my notes on the podium …
Even though it’s usually my happy place, I can understand why some people are afraid to speak in front of large groups. And even though they don’t usually freak me out, I can likewise understand why some people are afraid of spiders. They can be creepy! So today? I had an experience that would definitely be extremely troubling to any people for whom both of these fears overlap … as I was teaching at my women’s retreat in Tennessee, a GIANT SPIDER skittered up and over the edge of my podium and right across my speaker notes. Yeek! Pretty much without blinking, I set down the microphone, grabbed the nearest resource…
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Nightmares and Nearly Utter Sleeplessness (for 72+ hours now …)
Whenever I think about it, I chuckle quietly to myself … On Tuesday, a friend asked me how I was sleeping (because I frequently have insomnia and other sleep troubles) and I replied, “Great!” And I was. Up ’til then. For just over two months, I had been delightfully free from fear upon going to bed because (thankfully!), I just fell asleep. Until Tuesday night. And Wednesday night. And oh, how I pray it is NOT true tonight too … If you have never struggled with sleeplessness, I hope that you can truly rejoice because it is a wonderful thing to be an easy, deep sleeper. I know this because…
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Are we really supposed to fear the Lord?
I greatly enjoyed this post from Gentle Reformation and I commend it to you: Are We Really Supposed to Fear the Lord? This last paragraph provides a strong summary: “The word yare’ in its various forms appears 435 times throughout the Old Testament. Of those uses, almost eighty percent refer to the fear of the Lord. Obviously, Scripture wants us to know that God is indeed the most powerful object ever to be faced and he is greatly to be feared. If we are under his wrath, how great that fear must be in its dread, terror, and anguish. But if we are resting in his mercy by penitent faith in his…