Women's Devotional Bible

My Bible is the type that has all kinds of cheesy inserts and questions to ask yourself and devotionals for all days of the week. The fact that it is a "women's" devotional Bible also means that those add-ins will sometimes be inapplicable...like when they talk about children or growing older.

I read this probably about a year ago, when I was feeling defeated and consumed by my own feelings. Drowning in the confusion, trying to figure out what was God and what was me, and knowing that I attributed a lot of what was me to God because I wanted things to be that way. And then this appeared, and I'd call it a miracle, because my exact feelings were written in perfect form, when I had been unable to identify them myself.

"Sometimes our worry is the thread by which we hang onto the belief that we can do something to change our situation and end our fear. As ridiculous as it is, we believe that our anxiety gives us some measure of control. Or we believe it keeps God mindful of our problem. We are afraid that without the pressure of our fear, He might forget what we want from Him. But our anxiety and demanding prayers accomplish nothing. We fear giving up our fear because if we don't worry, who will remember to care? If we don't worry, would God decide we aren't really concerned about the issue? If we don't worry, are we giving up hope of God involving Himself in our world?

Cutting across all our stubborn reasons for remaining in our fear, Paul wrote, 'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit' (Romans 15:13). God's joy and peace are available to us as we trust Him; they are not the result of absolute guarantees about the outcome of our worries. We have a choice: will we trust Him and receive His joy and peace, or will we insist on seeking our joy and peace from resolved fears and changed circumstances?

The choice really is ours. We can hang onto our fears, insisting that until they are resolved, there is no way for us to enter into rest, or we can see those same fears as the door by which we can enter a rest far richer and sweeter than the rest that might arise from a tenuous arrangement of perfect circumstances. It is a rest that believes that a life without all the pieces in place, a life in which we do indeed suffer lack, is still a life to celebrate."



I <3 it