Elijah Hid And I Tried To Do The Same

1 Kings 19:1-18. 

This haunted me for two weeks, but let me give why the reason why. A few months ago my youth elder asked me and a few of our youths to help with the our church's kid ministry and teach them. Now just at the mention of speaking in front of people makes me shake, so when she told me I literally ran away (this is true I went to the other side of the church) and her being the way she is, she pushed me to do it, in the best way possible. I stopped thinking about it until two weeks ago when she handed me a brown envelope and goes "Here's your class" I nearly had a heart attack. There were many text messages sent to her about being panicked (you can ask her shes still laughing). One of the reasons why I started blogging with Michelle was because I knew some of these words and thoughts were going to help us for later, maybe they didn't apply to our life right now when we were writing them but they will some day. My someday came and two posts stood out, both by Michelle, Fear....A Trust Issue? and Breaking Up With Your Comfort Zone for these post I am forever grateful.

But what really made me chuckle was what I had to talk about and that was 1 Kings 19:1-18 "Elijah flees to Horeb to hide from Jezebel". Oh the irony! There I am trying to hide and run away from something that scares the life out of me and there's Elijah hiding from someone who scares the life out of him, we might as well be besties. Those two weeks for me were panic weeks, I would sit and stare at those bible pages and imagine talking to kids and I would shake. Yes kids are scary to me, I think it is far more important to preach to them than to older people (only by a little though), they have the future literally in their hands and here I am having a part in this child's development, I get to shape their history and I want to do the best job possible and at the same time I want to hide.

He replied, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your alters, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too" 1 Kings 19:10

The word zealous means to do something with passion. Elijah had served God so zealously to the point that someone wanted to kill him. I laughed because he had a reason to hide and I'm here hiding from kids. It was God's way of showing me that if he can do it, of course I can do it too. Elijah tried to hide and die and I was trying to do the same (expect the dying part). I was trying to find my cave and just sleep in it. Just like God woke up Elijah, he also woke me up with "What are you doing here"(1 Kings 19:9) and I couldn't answer him the way Elijah did because I wasn't serving him zealously but what I could say was, "I will learn to serve you zealously like Elijah, it is my turn now." And so I stopped panicking and started writing my class for Sunday morning. The outcome was great. I sat down with the kids around a table, we discussed about Elijah and God and how he will always provide for you when you are scared and trying to hide. We talked, we laughed and we drew. It was lovely and I am so glad I came out of that cave to serve Him zealously, I have the honour to be part of their development, what more can I ask for? God is too good. Now I leave you now with the verse the kids have to memorize for homework:

"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of deliverance"- Psalms 32:7

He surrounds you with songs of deliverance!

With Love & Grace- Diana C

Fear....a Trust Issue?

  I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one out there who's been afraid. Afraid of a multitude of things in this lifetime. Personally, I was so hooked on fear that it was starting to dominate over me, not letting me live my life the way I should. Now that's taking it too far I think. Of course, nobody's perfect and I'm still afraid of things such as public speaking (everyone's usually surprised by this one), but its something that I trust God will deliver me from slowly, but surely.
     But if there's something that I've learned over time it's that fear is a trust issue. Yeah, that sounds kind of weird right? Let me explain. I've come to realize that when you are afraid and fearful, it is because you aren't trusting God with the issue. There's this little thing called having faith, which is something that lacks if you are allowing fear to control your life.To overcome fear is to surrender it all to God. Like it says in  Philippians 4:6-7:

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

    If you allow God to take control of your fear then what makes you think He won't? He will give you that overwhelming peace that surpasses all of our understanding. Who doesn't want that?! I mean really? But we have to understand that there are implications to this. God wants you to do your part too! Don't just wait around for Him to make your feelings of fear magically disappear. It doesn't work that way. You have to make an effort yourself to be more trusting of God, meaning you have to seek Him, and get to know Him for who He really is; a loving Father!

There are a few things that I think really help you to overcome fear. 

1) Prayer
If you haven't experienced the power of prayer, I encourage you to go deeper. Dedicate time to this because prayer is the key in this battle. God promises us in Matthew 7.7 :

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you."

Put it into practice and be amazed by Gods glory! I dare you.

2) Read the Word
This one seems like a no brainer.  Read the word and you can really learn a lot about Jesus and the Father. But something that I've come to realize is that the enemy has NO new tricks. So recognizing the attack of the enemy against your life gives you an advantage and an opportunity to use the word to overcome.

3) Counsel
Put up your hand if you've ever been that type of person who thought they could do everything on their own without needing anyone's help. Yeah I was that person for far too long. I'm almost 100% sure that God put people on this planet so that we could help each other out and flee from isolation. So tell someone you trust about what you're going through; someone who is on higher spiritual grounds than you are. I promise you, God will use them to give you words of comfort and wisdom.

4) Worship  
Chains are broken during worship.  Its a time where you can completely let go of whats bothering you, and wholeheartedly give it up to God. Worship is a time to set an atmosphere to let the Holy Spirit do His work. Surrender it all and trust God!

    Essentially what I want is for you all to walk in the freedom that Jesus has given us. His love overcomes all things, and He is GREATER than any and every fear that exists. So why not go out on a limb and surrender all fear within you up to Jesus? There's really nothing to lose. All you do is gain! Learn to trust God with everything that you are, every inch of your being; all fears included, and walk out in the love that is Christ. I pray that God will set you free of all fear that is trying to dominate over your life, and that the love and peace of God may just overflow in your lives! 

Written by Michelle♡