God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always. (Psalm 121:7-8 MSG) Every evil - not just some of them; not just the ones we know about; all of them! We might not even realize his protection over our lives but we can rest assured that he is 'on guard'. When we leave, or when we return - his watchfulness doesn't abandon us - there are no 'blind spots' with him. His protection outlasts our 'battle readiness'. There is no greater or safer place to be than under the shadow of his wings. When we forget this, we begin to panic as life comes our way. When we begin to doubt this, panic sets its course on full-fledged fear. The antidote to panic and fear is the recounting of his faithfulness through all generations and even into today! What does it mean to have God guard us from every evil? It means that the evil from without and even that which eminates from wit...
Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. (Martin Luther King, Jr.) Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. (Philippians 2:7 NLT) We can be paralyzed by fear, making it almost impossible to take steps forward. Why does fear cause us so many issues in life? If we have never really made a commitment to Jesus, then I suspect that most of our fear is because we have been attempting to figure life and all of its challenges out on our own. That might not work so well when the forces against us are mounting and the ability to resist them is getting harder. Fear can and will keep us in a position of servitude to it as long as we allow it access to our minds, will, and emotions. The only way to fully be free of our servitude to fear is to ask Jesus to rule over those three things - something we cannot do until we ask him in...