When I Am Afraid

“When I am afraid I put my trust in you. In God whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”—Psalm 56: 3-4

What fears are swirling in your mind as you begin your week? Is it the paper that is due in that difficult class? Is it the overwhelming workload left on your desk from Friday afternoon? Is it a difficult conversation with a friend? Is it a hard relationship at home or an uncertain doctor’s appointment? Whatever the fear is, one thing is certain: in the mind of the fearful one, it can seem like an impassable mountain.

David had much to be afraid of when he wrote this Psalm. He was fleeing from Saul, the Philistines had seized him, and he was now in enemy territory. He stares his fears in the face and speaks to them: “What can flesh do to me?”

Sometimes our fears are over genuinely fearful things. Sometimes, though, our fears are over a lack of perceived control. So often my fear is translated as, “I don’t trust your goodness in this situation.” When I was single it was fear that a guy I liked would not like me back and then I would be left single forever. Now that I am married, so many of my fears revolve around the future and my relationship with my husband. What if God doesn’t give me the five children I hope for? What if my husband does not make the decision I want him to make?

Many of us spend so much of the moments of fear immersed in the fears themselves. The Psalmist makes a conscious decision not to do that. Yes, the fears are frightening—sometimes rightly so. But in my own life, I have found that I need to spend a lot less time indulging my fears, and more time giving them to God. He knows the outcome of them anyways.

He holds the outcome, and the circumstances of our fears, in the very palm of his hand. They are not lost to him. He is watching over every detail of every fear that we face—big or small. Because of his work for us we can look at our fears today and say with David, “what can flesh do to me?”

Missions Wednesday: Saudi Arabia

Imagine living in a family where becoming a Christian means persecution, and often death. Imagine living in a society where you are the only Christian and there are few Bibles, few avenues for fellowship, and hardly any Christian places to worship your Savior. It’s hard to think about isn’t? Especially hard when many of us pass multiple churches on the way to our own church, or when the local Christian bookstore is not too far, or when we have unrestricted internet access to some of the greatest resources for our own growth. Imagine living in a country where Christians weren’t even allowed to get to you.

Saudi Arabia is such a country.

Saudi Arabia is home to the holiest of holy cities for Muslims—Mecca. 1.2 million Muslims pray to Mecca every day. Persecution is high and certain for anyone who claims the name of Christ in Saudi Arabia. According to Operation World’s 24-7 Prayer Guide, Saudi Arabia is possibly the most dangerous place to live in the world as a Christian.

Prayer Requests:

• There are approximately 50,000 people who believe in Christ in Saudi Arabia. Pray that they would be strengthened in their faith.
• Saudi Arabia is a closed country. Pray that God would provide a way for missionaries to get into the country.
• Pray that the hearts of Saudi’s would be softened to the Gospel.

Goals for 2010: Making My Time Count

Like many people I made goals for the upcoming year. I can’t recall ever making goals for the year before, at least as a believer. But I find myself saying “I want to work on that” a lot, so it seemed only right to make a list of said things, if only to have something to pray about and reflect on next year at this time. As I prayed and thought through the list, I found a recurring theme—time management. Most of my aspirations for my growth this year stem from my own lack of time management and self-control. And namely, my lack of control in how much time I spend online. I used to justify my excessive Facebook use with “it helps me keep up with people.” But did it really? No, it didn’t. Checking status updates and profiles does not amount to a relationship, no matter how I look at it. If I really wanted to be consistent I would actually send a message to the people I wanted to keep up with. And how interesting that one of my goals for the year is to keep up with existing friends and cultivate new ones.

Another goal for the year is to read more. I used to read a lot more than I do now. I love reading, but I find myself immersed in time-wasting browsing on the internet. Now I find myself easily bored with things that are more than “140 characters.” I have gotten used to bite-sized pieces of information, rather than large chunks of truth. No matter how I try and justify it, bite-sized information will never fill me up spiritually—even if it is amazing.

As I start the year, I want to spend more time investing in things that matter; things that are of eternal significance. This doesn’t mean I won’t be on the internet. It just means I will limit my time, so I can use the time I do have for things that last. And it means I won’t blindly use the internet, either. If I see an old (or new) friend on a social networking site, I will ask her how she is doing instead of lurking around her profile. Internet and social networking are not needs. They are gifts that can be used for good and bad. I really pray that this year I use the gifts for more good than bad.

Remembering Mrs. Dubert

Today I am linking to a post I wrote in the fall of 2007 about a dear friend of mine. Her name was Mrs. Marjorie Dubert. The post includes something she wrote about her time as a missionary in New Guinea. Mrs. Dubert was a dear lady, who loved and served King Jesus. And on Wednesday, she was in the presence of her King.

Though I haven't seen Mrs. Dubert in many years, I still kept in contact with her. She was the mother of my mom's best friend, who is like an aunt to me. Mrs. Dubert and I would email from time to time, and she was one of the biggest encouragers of me to attend seminary. I still remember the content of her email when I told her I was moving to Louisville to go back to school. When I was living a rebellious life away from Christ, she prayed for me. She supported every misssions trip I went on. She emailed me. She read my blog sometimes. She was my far-away friend. And I will miss her. Now she is even farther away than she was before. But I will see her someday. Someday when we are all around the table of King Jesus worshipping our Savior forever. Until then, you will be missed, Mrs. Dubert. Thank you for your service to our Christ,

Here is the post. I hope she encourages you like she did me.

Missions Wednesday: Turkey

For this week’s Missions Wednesday I enlisted the help of my sweet husband. He has been to Turkey twice and it is a country that is dear to our heart. So below are some helpful tidbits that he relayed to me about the country of Turkey.

Turkey is the largest unreached nation in the world. For over a thousand years Christianity was the prevailing religion, but now Islam is the official religion of Turkey. There are approximately 66 million people living in Turkey. This is a staggering number. Sixty-six million people, unreached, and following a false religion.

Geography lesson for the day: It straddles two continents: Europe and Asia. I thought that was interesting.

How we can pray:

Pray that God would send missionaries to Turkey to proclaim the Gospel.

Pray that the missionaries who are already there would be encouraged.

Pray that God would open their eyes to the Gospel. Islam is a cultural religion there, and to leave Islam means leaving being a Turk in many of their minds.

Pray against fear in the hearts of Turkish people who have become Christians.

Will You Mentor Me?

A biblical mentoring relationship is a choice—for both parties involved. While we see the mandate in Titus 2 for older women to train the younger women, the latter must be willing to receive the discipleship. Often, as younger women, we stay only in the waiting position. We see the command for older women and hope that they will see us at church and resolve to find us and mentor us. It’s not wrong to hope for that. In fact, it is a very good thing to hope for that kind of a relationship. But we can take that hope and help make it into a reality. We can take steps to foster relationships with older women, seeking their advice, desiring their help, and wanting their friendship.

Ruth made a conscious decision to stay with Naomi. The text says that she “clung” to her (Ruth 1:14, 17-18). And this was even against the advice of Naomi! But Ruth wanted Naomi’s God. Ruth wanted to be apart of Naomi’s family. She chose to stay with her.

Mary made a deliberate choice to go to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-40). Granted, Elizabeth was more than a willing partner in helping the young mother. But still, Mary went to her on her own accord. She knew Elizabeth shared a common experience with her (an unexplained and unexpected pregnancy) and shared her God. This was enough for Mary to go to Elizabeth and seek refuge and comfort in her time of need.

Our action as younger women does not take away from the biblical command directed to older women. But our action, done in humility, might actually encourage them in their desire to fulfill the directive of Titus 2. Asking someone to mentor you, and asking someone if they want to be mentored is never easy—no matter how you word it. But perhaps, and I know this is true of my own life, it may be God’s way of cultivating humility in your life simply by saying “I need help in this area, can you mentor me?”

So often we like to think that we have it all together. Or at least we act like we do. We surround ourselves with peers who think we are great, who think we are holy, who think we have womanhood down. And maybe you do. Praise God for that. But maybe, just maybe, God wants to cultivate an even greater holiness, an even greater heart for womanhood, and an even greater understanding of greatness by putting an older woman in your life to shape those already existing qualities.

Pray about it. Read about it. Talk about it. And by God’s grace make a choice to do something about it.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday 2010

Yesterday was Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention. Every year Southern Baptist churches take the third Sunday of January to encourage believers to continue to care about the lives of the unborn. Our pastor preached a message yesterday out of Psalm 139. He showed us again that God is the author of life, human beings are created in God's image, and human beings are created for the glory of God. Recognizing the sanctity of human life is not just for babies in utero, although it is massively important that we fight for them. Valuing life is about caring for the elderly, adopting the orphans, volunteering at the crisis pregnancy center, helping a single mother, mentoring a foster child, and going on the mission field. We value life in all stages because God wants people to worship him; and we should want this too. People are precious. They are image-bearers of our King. Not waste to be discarded.

Daniel and I have talked a lot about what this would look like for us; long-term and short-term. We don't know yet. But we do know one thing. Valuing life will mean giving up our own life. It is not enough just to say that we are pro-choice when we don't care about the life that is wasting away all around us. Valuing life will mean we are a little (or a lot) less comfortable than we would maybe like. But it only matters if this is all we have to live for.

My prayer for myself this year is that I would be comfortable with the uncomfortable in whatever avenue that means for my life right now. I want to be willing to sleep a little less on a Saturday morning so I can volunteer at the crisis pregnancy center. I want to spend less time browsing Facebook and more time browsing sites that make me love the world more. I want to value life in all stages in a way that helps people see Jesus as the one who makes us really live.