When you feel too close to the edge

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Edges terrify me. Not heights so much as the lack of a fence or railing.  Well, there are emotional edges too.  We've all experienced them, not a comfortable place.  Just like the edge of a roof, an emotional edge sends me in the direction of safety.  Specifically, I run to Jesus.

 Yes, I'm the one who writes about fear.  The one who says there's hope! We can overcome!  I'm the one who writes to encourage those who battle fear because I've been there, and I've literally felt the hand of God deliver me.   God is a personal God, and I've quoted  Psalm 34 many times.  It says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."

And yet, if you check my pulse, sometimes it's off the chart!  I know it's wrong, I know when I'm letting tomorrow rob me of today.  I also know I'm not going to stay there.  But, just so you know, it blind sides me!

"We're not ready God," I feel myself saying.  We're not ready for...  "What ifs" come in a thousand packages dropping like boulders on my chest.  

OK, so what crushes boulders?!  Jeremiah 23:29 says, "Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock (boulders)  in pieces?"  So I get busy.

Truth is, even if we think we're ready, we are never truly ready for anything, unless God's grace is holding us there, in "ready" mode.  Often the things that make us feel "ready" are not God, but "controls" that we think we can put in place.  They fake us out.  If I find comfort in anything apart from God taking care of our family, I'm finding my comfort in an idol.  The idol of control, comfort, safety...

So when I find myself wanting this control, I have to recognize the enemy and do some battle.  I'm just winging it right now.  Taking you on my journey.  A journey I know God is going to meet me on and take over the key board.  I'll start with the first step He brings to mind, taking my thoughts captive.

1.   I need to pray for God to help me take my thoughts captive.  2 Corinthians 10:5, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  This is not a matter of will power.  2 Corinthians 10:3-4 makes this clear, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."

2.  Confide in a prayer warrior.  Don't pretend to have it all together, be honest, vulnerable, ask for prayer.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor,  10If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.  But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.  11Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.  But how can one keep warm alone?  12Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."  

I always consider a chord of three being at least one other person and Jesus with me in prayer!

3.  Stay in the present.  Matthew 6:30-34 says, " If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdomand his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."  

And while in the present, "seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to us.  What things?  What ever we need!

4.  The steps just begin to follow one another...if we seek His righteousness, we know that we put on His righteous robes, they clothe us, they cover our fear, our shame, our sin.  Isaiah 61:10, "I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

5.  And because when we know that we are dressed in His robes, we know that, "The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever."  Isaiah 32:17  Ask the Holy Spirit to call out the fruit of PEACE.  And there it is.

The. Path. To. Peace. Is. Jesus. Thru. His. Word. And. Prayer.

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