Fear Not

One of the blessings of crisis is the revelation of God's love. In the midst of tribulation and distress, God quiets our hearts with His love (Zephaniah 3:17). God never ever removes His love from us, and if we will keep our faces turned to Him, we can learn more about His unfailing love. Just ask Him to show you His love, in new and fresh ways that you've never experienced. Last night I had a dream about my earthly father who passed away less than a year ago. He was holding me and loving me and listening to all my struggles. I know God gave me this dream to reveal the security that comes from His love; something I have not known in the natural, God is teaching me in the supernatural.

1 John 4;18 says "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love."

God's love will perfect our love toward Him, and when our love is perfected, all fear is cast out. There is no room left for fear because God's love fills us up. To the degree that I love Him, to that degree fear no longer has room in my soul. I feel safe, secure, cherished....... and it's so much easier to trust Him in the storm.

Baby Baby

I have been having a blast with Isaac this week! I'm now 26 weeks, at the point where fetal movements are very defined and I'm loving it! I not only feel kicks, but bounces, rolls, and squirms (is that a word?). Anyway, out of the blue I'll get punched from the inside and can feel little parts.... knees, elbows, etc. moving around. I can also feel him move from one side of my belly to the other. At times it's strong enough to make me flinch. Playtime in the womb has turned into gymnastics class! That's fine with me. I'm bonding with my son.

Hezekiah

I love the truths revealed to us in the Old Testament. All four of my children have Hebrew names of faithful, godly men from generations past. A study of Hezekiah in Isaiah 38 and 39 convicted my heart of some fleshly responses that need to be purified from my life. Maybe this will minister to you, too....

Hezekiah was the king of Judah and was a godly man. He loved the Lord, and purged the land of idolatry. He was miraculously delivered from life-threatening sickness. However, there came a time that the Lord tested Him; actually two times, He was tested once and passed, he was tested again and failed. Those of us who know the testing fires of God have learned that He sends the pain for a purpose, one being to create a greater dependence on Him, and after removing the fire from our lives, He will test the gold to see how pure it is. Let's look....

In Isaiah 36 and 37, Assyria tried to invade Judah. Hezekiah cried out to God to intervene and God sent glorious deliverance. But in Isaiah 39, the test is a little closer to home. Envoys from Babylon came to the king, with gifts and compliments and smiles. Hezekiah is not ready for this test that comes in such a friendly fashion. Without seeking the counsel of God, He welcomes the ambassadors into his house and shows them all his treasures, "the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointments, and all his armory-all that was found among his treasures". Hezekiah was seduced by the attention, not realizing that the king of Babylon had a political agenda to use Hezekiah to strengthen their ties with Assyria. God used the right circumstances to surface pride in his heart. The attention and approval of man took priority over dependence on God. The main symptom of spiritual pride is sincere decision making without consulting God.

This story speaks to me about the temptation to relax our dependence on God in the presence of the familiar. Like Hezekiah, it is easy to rely on God in the threat of an enemy army, but the greatest test of our hearts comes in the presence of friends and loved ones. Do we engage the same dependence on God in our relationships with our husbands, parents, children, leaders, friends? If not, we may have developed "soul ties" with those whom we desire love and acceptance from. In other words, we give part of ourselves to man, when our entire hearts should belong to God.

It is not an easy thing, but God wants us to lose confidence and dependence on the flesh, and rely on Him implicitly for every area of decision in our lives. He wants to lead and counsel us on every issue that comes to our hearts, whether blatantly obvious or deceptively subtle.

From my journal:
Lord, forgive me for grieving Your heart by giving my dependence away to anyone other than You. I confess my fear of man, which Your word says is a snare. I realize that fear of man's rejection causes me to allow access to the tender, vulnerable places of my heart, which belong to You. Like Hezekiah, I've allowed my treasures- my gifts, talents, anointing, trust- to be made available to those whom I desire approval from, without seeking You first. Your acceptance and approval is all I need. Be the King of my heart.

Update

Sorry for the absence! Here is an update.....

First off, mother and baby are well. Several sonograms have confirmed that God is blessing our family with ANOTHER BOY!!!! His name is Isaac Mikal and we are thrilled to be having another son. Here's a photo of our little guy....

I know a lot of folks have been rooting for us to have a daughter, but we are not upset that we are not having a girl, and are trusting God to design our family. I looked up the odds of a four-child family consisting of all boys; it's 9 percent!

The house is still on the market. We hired a realtor and are having another open house tomorrow. One family with seven children is very interested in our house. We have almost 2500 square feet so hopefully there's room for all of them if this is the family for our home.

Bo is still working for our friend Jason in Dothan. We are anxious to re-unite our family. Once the house sells we are free to go wherever God leads us. We have many sweet friends in Albany but we have no jobs, ministries, committments, etc to tie us here and we believe that is part of God's plan. He has removed the feathers from our nest!

Joshua and Caleb started school this week and Noah starts preschool next week. I felt a little strange waddling into high school orientations with my pregnant belly. How many moms do you know with a sixteen year gap between kids???? Bo and I joke that I have children ranging from one pound to 220.