no fear

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (I John 4:18)

The song has been running through my head... "There's no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear..." And come to think of it, I need that message in my life right now so badly.

There's currently a certain amount of stress in my life that is reasonable, expected, and even healthy. I'm starting a new job, yet still deeply feeling the responsibilities of being a wife and mother and learning to balance it all. However, there also exists plenty of stress that I shouldn't be hanging on to... but that I'm still feeling solely because I'm refusing to entrust it to my Heavenly Father.

I had/have been trying to really focus on my prayer life lately, learning what it looks like to have intimate conversation with the Lord in the way that He has designed. But it's almost like I was too focused on it - such that I felt a burden to make sure that everything got covered (or maybe more accurately stated, controlled) by me. God is bigger than that. He knows me, and He knows the future. And I can trust Him with all things. The point of me praying is not to take control. It's to release. When I give it to Him, the fear and anxiety fade away.

My reading in Springs in the Valley this morning was so fitting to go along with this:
"No man ever makes Him supreme and suffers loss, for Jehovah will not be left in any man's debt. When a man holds on, God takes away, when a man lets go, He gives, and that liberally. [...] Make me a captive, Lord, and I shall be free. [...]. Oh master, show me this morning how to yield myself up to Thee completely, and then how to ask of Thee things great enough to be worthy of a King's giving. Make me equal in my requests to Thy infinite eagerness to give." (p. 264-265).