Faith and Fear are Mutually Exclusive

Our son David is in Australia. We put our fifteen year old son on a seventeen hour international flight, so he could walk through a door the Lord had clearly opened for him. He is experiencing three weeks on our dear friend's sheep ranch. He is in his element and having the time of his life.

For days before he left, I fought my fears.

As a parent, I struggle with mom-fears like everyone else; kidnappers, homicidal maniacs, drunk drivers, the list is long. A checklist of concerns play through my head before one of my children attempts to do anything or go anywhere.

As I allow my fears to play in my mind over and over again, like a broken record, these fears work a deep groove into the recesses of my innermost thoughts. Until, finally, they are what I think of first, before anything else, including God's word.

God's word says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. (Hebrews 11:1) Jesus said to his disciples, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. Matt. 8:26

Paul saw a chance for a hard-working lesson, "We won't help you fund this trip, son. The Lord has opened a door for you. You and He will have to work this out together."

Fear hoped he couldn't raise enough money. Faith desired my child to run through the Lord's wide open door.

On Wednesday, I will be throwing my arms around my son as he returns home from his trip. I'm grateful the grooves in my mind are slowly cutting a new path. God's word is the best for filling in the cracks in my wrong-thinking.

Faith and fear are mutually exclusive. Fear will forever hold my children back and keep them from all the Lord has for them. Faith must always be my first response.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear. 1John 4:18