His Encouragement #138

Welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He and He alone is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

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Today’s Thursday Encouragement:

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

Psalm 37:7 ESV

I’m going to be straight-up honest — I’ve been struggling hard for a long time.

There’s a lot bugging me, but the number one issue I’m struggling with is that wicked humans and evil spirits seem to be winning. I say “seem” because I know that God is the Boss and He has everything under total control, but it still appears like the bad guys have the upper hand.

I have fear running rampant through my heart and I hate it. I pray to God every day to take the fear away. I read His Word every day so I can be filled with His peace and encouragement, but I’m failing. I hate failing. I’m your typical Type-A, straight-A gal. I don’t fail. So the fact that I am failing in the fear department has me really upset.

All I can think about lately is the verse from Matthew 10 where Jesus tells us, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (verse 28). I KNOW I should not fear humans. What can they really do? Kill me?! OK, well then I go to Heaven and I get to be with Jesus. I KNOW this to be fact, but I can’t seem to get my heart wrapped around this truth.

Maybe my real issue is that I feel invisible. To the world, I am a number. A number who needs to be put in her place and told what to do. If I step out of their line, they are more than happy to take something away — my rights to speak, my social media, my job, my life, etc.

I don’t want to be invisible. I want to know that God sees me and my struggles. That He really is right beside me through it all. I want to know that God, my Father, sees me that His kid is struggling and I want Him to take out the bullies.

Amidst my struggle, God spoke to me. My daily study the other morning was on Psalm 37. Verse 7 SCREAMED at me…it was glorious. “Be still and wait patiently BEFORE the Lord.” In other words, life — my life — is all in God’s capable hands. I just need to chill out. I need to wait on Him cause His timing is perfect. I love this part of the verse, but it is the next part that really quieted my fears — “fret not!” God knows that I am worrying over the evil and wicked. He knows that I am scared because they think they have won. He knows that my OCD brain is riddled with the worst possible scenarios it could come up with. He knows I am struggling with their evil. He knows I want Justice to prevail. He knows. And, to me He tells me, “Fret not!” Why? Because He’s got it all under control.

Am I 100% better? Is my fear all gone? No. I think fear is my Achilles heal and I will have to work every day of my life, WITH GOD’S HELP, to daily overcome these issues. BUT today I feel heard. I feel seen. And, God has told me what to do to calm down — chill out and fret not. Today, I can do this. Today, I am encouraged by God’s direct command. I pray that in some way, dear reader, this post is an encouragement to you, too!

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NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?

Check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

Becca @ The Becca Files

Gina @ Stories by Gina

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes

Andi @ Radiant Light

Leslie @ Words of Hope

Claudia @ Claudia Moser

Keneesha @ Women Loving God’s Way