Be not afraid.

A phrase that I often take a deep breath even thinking about... There are so many things that we are faced with that causes fear- especially that of the unknown, the hidden. Let's be real, most of the time the future can absolutely terrify us. Many times we are plagued with the what-if scenarios swirling around our brain so violently until yes, we all know, it causes serious anxiety in our hearts.

However, "Be not afraid" and "fear not" are two of the most common phrases throughout the Bible. I take it here as the Lord driving a significant point not only for our minds, but our hearts. Projecting ourselves in the future from our present place actually has no efficiency, it solves nothing. Why? We don't know exactly how things will look AND we are not there yet. We try to derive answers based on estimated circumstances and it truly can end up just being a big mess of us trying to pin point the movement of God. But guess what?

"Now to him who is able to do FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY than all that we ASK or THINK, according to the power at work within us," (Ephesians 3:20)

Well this sure does put a cramp in our calculations does it not? Almighty God + FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY = way above my feeble understanding. I ultimately fall to my knees thanking the Lord for that. On most days I couldn't even come up what is best for me for that 24 hours, much less my entire life time. 

He knows us so intimately and in the now He is just asking us to know Him. Not necessarily what He can do, but just WHO HE IS. He is such an incredibly good Father. Even if we are given every single blessing we are asking for, HE IS STILL BETTER. Knowing Him is the greatest reward and all else is loss. 

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:8)

What if He perhaps is delaying our deliverance from our current situation/circumstances because He is developing a greater intimacy in us with Him? That is a game changer. A perspective shifter. To me, it's a GIFT. Thank you Lord. To know Him is the greatest reward and that is where my gaze is and should always be, even though I fall short sometimes. So I challenge myself and you to ask ourselves daily, where is our gaze?