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Silence The Fear

I must admit that I have some naggingly daunting fears. Fears that are horrifying because they threaten my deepest desires. Fears that are related to circumstances that are entirely out of my control. More than anything else, I’m afraid Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy will keep me from experiencing some of the greatest parts of life. The parts of life that I have been looking forward to for as long as I can remember.

What am I afraid of? A fair amount of things. Things related to knowing that this phase of my life is different than it is for most. Largely the potential that what I see my friends and peers experiencing will escape me. The older I get, the more these fears seem to speak to me. I know life is short and the clock’s always running. Will the time run out before I meet certain desires?

I fear that I may not become a husband. I fear that I may not become a father. Two things that I have always longed to be. When I was a kid I never had an answer to what I wanted to be when I grew up. And as of late, I’ve realized that it’s always been to fulfill these roles. But that wasn’t the right answer to the question. Those aren’t professions, so I didn’t give a response. Interestingly enough these are the exact positions God created man for. The Lover creating lovers. The Father creating parents.

Why do I fear that these interests will elude me? Because the reality is that DMD lessens the odds and increases the difficulties of such opportunities. Believe me, I am submitted to the Lord’s will if He does not have these things in store for me. Nor am I in a hurry to experience them. It’s just that I don’t want them to be missed due to muscular dystrophy. My humanity tells me that that’s the only reason such a withholding could be. That’s plain scary!

I know it’s not true, but it still makes me shudder all the way through. Missing out has unceasingly driven my doubts. It often cripples my confidence and melts my motivation. Is it even possible? Is it worth the disappointment of my failed attempts? And even if I pull these pursuits off by God’s grace, will I have made lives worse in the process? If I become a husband, if I become a father, I fear that I may do a great detriment to my loved ones.

That’s also not true. I know my hardships have only ever caused me to do what I need to do. Every seeming loss for my family would be made up for with the extending of love. But that fearful prospect, it lingers still. And of course it does, for the fall, sin, and death have left life incomplete. Our hearts and our souls wonder how much more havoc they can wreak. The same for you as it is for me.

Moreover, these fears I’ve discussed aren’t the only I face. I fear I may not be successful because I am physically limited in what success means. I must invent and receive new ways to succeed. I fear I will not meet the needs that I was made to meet because I am more often than not the one who’s in need. I fear that I may forget to worship my God as I endure the turmoils of this life. Faith is a battle that’s so hard to fight! And if I survive it all, I fear that I may not be healed until my heavenly call.

Yet, amidst every terror that crosses my mind the Lord is there to meet me with these words from John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” He’s calling me to trust Him. To trust Him and His peace. To silence the fear by drawing near to my great Hope. That is where I’ll be set free. Come silence the fear with me!

While considering these fears the following lyrics from the song Fear Is a Liar by Zach Williams have been echoing through my mind lately: “Cast your fear in the fire, ‘Cause fear he is a liar.” I want to cast all fear in the fire because it is indeed a liar.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” – II Timothy‬ ‭1:7‬

“Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’” – Isaiah‬ ‭41:10‬

“The thing that will secure you in the days to come is not knowledge of the future, but knowledge of and trust in the One who holds you and every aspect of the future in his hands.” – Paul Tripp

Patience, Please!

I am really impatient. Like really impatient! If you see me angry, there’s a pretty high chance that it’s because of impatience. I guess this comes from a subconscious worry about what tomorrow holds. I’ve got a lot to do, a lot of ambitions to accomplish, and a lot of callings to obey. I can’t do it all on my own! And sometimes I forget that I don’t have to do any of it on my own. Anxiety that I won’t measure up or get it all done drives my impatience as I lose sight of the Lord.

When my impatient parts take over it boils over to unnecessary anger. I don’t consider myself an angry person either, so when my lack of patience leads to anger it throws me off for quite a while. Upon realizing my petty harshness I get even more upset because I then become upset with myself. Funny, I guess I get impatient with my own impatience!

Sometimes I even get impatient with other people’s impatience. That’s when things get seriously heated. Now you’re behaving in a way that I never would! Wait, what? I just said… Hypocrite. At that point I’ve refused to extend grace where I know I personally need it. How can you expect grace when you’re graceless?! So deadly is impatience that it blinds us from our Christ-like basics. Maybe if we’d just relax, the Man of Grace could lead us!

His grace is in fact what will relax us! But why is it so difficult to think this way? To that I’d say: Impatience is one of the hardest things to be gracious about because it’s so darn impulsive. It happens almost immediately; our only warning being that we know we’re prone to it. I wish that were enough. It usually isn’t! The only way to conquer impatience in full is to learn how to control our impulses. Much easier said than done.

Our impulses come from our flesh, the deeply ingrained natural man. That goes to say that patience is a miracle of the highest standard. It marks the overcoming of our deepest drives and desires. The calming of the sea of anxieties. Patience reveals a new man! A change in a man that could only be perfected by the renewing power of Jesus Messiah! You can work to be patient, but it is impossible to maintain without the impartation of His amazing grace. (Galatians 5:17, Romans 7:5)

Only the Lord has perfect patience. Only the Lord can provide it. An unfair trial, an undeserved scourging, and an unmercifully vicious and vicarious death. Yet not a word by Him was said. He is the long-suffering patient one. That is the example I follow. That is the power that enables me to imitate! He is! I cry out to Him, “Lord, patience please! Patience, please! Be patient with me and give me that same patience!”

May we receive an abundance of the Spirit fruits that exhibit His patience found in Galatians 5:22-23! “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Join me in crying out to the King of kings for patience, please!

“The wonderful thing about God’s grace is that it not only forgives you, but it delivers you and it not only delivers you, but it works to fundamentally transform you.” – Paul Tripp

“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” – ‭James‬ ‭5:7-8‬,

He Delivers Us From Temptation

He, the God of heaven and earth, the God of everything, always meets us right where we are. To all believers in Christ this is foundationally the most basic understanding of our faith. It is this aspect of the Father that permeates throughout every jot of scripture. A holy God, whose perfect standard could never be achieved by any one of us, doing the necessary work for us. A loving God, who does this not out of pity for us unworthy sinners, but out of a passionate desire to have fellowship with us. So much so that He sent His only son to take our place of punishment in order that we may enter in. Enter into a relationship with Him!

If that’s not meeting us right where we are, I don’t know what is. I dare you to find a better example! You can’t, because such constant love as this is foreign to man. Only something supernatural could fulfill the requirements of a perfect, sinless being graciously choosing to die for the inferior and guilty. Only the Creator of the universe. Only Jesus Messiah! Yes, only Him!

He delivers us from death. He delivers us from sin. He delivers us from temptation. In dying on the cross He offered the way for all three of these deliverances. Death entered through sin and sin likewise offers the entrance to death. Temptation is the gateway to both. When Jesus’ blood was shed their effects were rendered dead! Being delivered from these spiritual chains is what delivers us into the arms of the Father!

There’s nothing we could do to defeat those death traps on our own. Again, this is the Lord meeting us right where we are! The path to salvation is the greatest expression of that truth. But even after we have entered into a relationship with Him, He continues to meet us where we are. One of the ways He does this is by offering us a means of escape every time any temptation to sin is on the horizon.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says this, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” This verse makes it clear that God is not cruel or unrealistic about His expectations of mankind. He knows we are weak and offers His helping grace at every turn.

In this, none of us are tempted more or in heavier ways than another. We have all faced the same tempting weight because our collective flesh’s temptations are universal. There is only so much of it that we can possibly endure before we give in though. Only the Lord knows the limitations of our strength and will not allow that line of endurance to be breached unless we willingly desire the breach more than Him. He always provides an escape, the choice to take it is always ours.

Maybe you doubt that the Almighty intervenes in the temptations of believers. I can assure you that He does! I’d like to share with you several means of escape that the Lord has offered me, and almost certainly offers you, to prove it. One major way of escape that is never a step away is the freedom we have to pray for strength to turn away. Another available option is to open His Word for a bit of discernment and/or encouragement to abandon temptation’s course. But, we are often so caught up in the allure of available temptation that we forget these easily accessible alternatives. When that’s the case, an interruption from a loved one usually reveals the route.

There’s no question that we’ll never be able to overcome sin’s tempting on our own. We need His ways of escape. We need Him to be our ultimate escape! Thank God that today I can leave you with this simple promise: He delivers us from temptation!

“No matter how many broken things in your life that have left you feeling unprepared and disadvantaged, God meets you right where you are with his powerful grace and works to restore you to what only grace can make you be.” – Paul Tripp

“And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!” – II Timothy‬ ‭4:18‬