I CAN'T DO COFFEE

I can't do coffee.  I can't drink coffee, sadly.  I love it.  Love the smell of it, but I turn into a cot case fairly quickly if I actually drink it.   So I don't.   And I try not to envy those who can.  

I'm once again joining with the writers of Five Minute Friday, where we are given a theme word each Friday, where we write for five minutes and resist the urge to edit or tidy it up.  

This week's theme word is COFFEE. 

So, I thought I'd come up with something clever about coffee and here it is.  

So many times in my life, I've had to come out from fear.   Even in the last twelve months, I've had to face fear head on, mostly buried fear, but it was still driving my daily choices and crippling relationship and restricting my children.    My mother's fears created so many problems for us growing up, and well into our 20s and 30s, and I've had to face one fear after another, so as not to continue to be restricted by them.  I have conquered a lot of practical fears, but there were still plenty more to go.   

Really, the only way we come out from fear is to face it, though we have to do more than face it.    We actually need to get prayer for it.   We need people to help us see it, feel it, face it, then pray for us as we face it.   

Then we have to choose to be strong and courageous, and do it afraid, as Joyce Meyer says.  We can't wait for the feeling of fear to disappear.    We have to do what we've been frightened of, in God's strength, in God's way, in God's timing, and He'll back us.    One of my daughters was facing something very difficult a couple of years back and asking the Lord why He wasn't rescuing her.  His answer was basically this:  'YOU step out, YOU draw the line in the sand, YOU face your fears, YOU say enough, and I'll back YOU, I'll be here for YOU, I'll empower YOU.  But this is what needs doing, and YOU have to do it.'   

Fear is often based in trauma, sometimes trauma that's years old or very recent, so it's tied to real experience.   So there's no point saying to a fearful person, 'It doesn't matter, it's not real, it won't happen again'.     It was real then and there are no guarantees, and we need to not dismiss fear so readily.   We also need to be sensible about not putting ourselves in harm's way again.  

But we also need to not stay there, in that place of fear.   We need to come out from under it, be strong and courageous, in Him.     When He says it's time to be strong and courageous, then we can know that He's also ready to back us.   

God told Joshua to be strong and courageous.    I've always wondered about that.   Why does God tell fearful people not to be afraid?   It's always seemed like an oxymoron to me.   The Scripture is full of commands to not be fearful.   Jesus said it many times, as did others.   

But He does it because fear is more than a feeling, it's often a choice, as I've discovered in the last week.   And being brave is a choice too.    And as we make that choice to face it, to be strong, we are made strong, by Him.   

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”     Joshua 1:8,9

If Joshua did not come out from under whatever fears were holding him, he could not have led God's people into their promised land, their God-given purposes.   When we come out from fear, we empower those under us to move on as well.  

He gives strength to the weary,

And to him who lacks might He increases power.

Though youths grow weary and tired,

And vigorous young men stumble badly,

Yet those who wait for the Lord

Will gain new strength;

They will mount up with wings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired,

They will walk and not become weary.  Isa 40:29-31

I love this song from Chris Tomlin 

Fear not!

The Lord God is with us

Be strong, take heart

The Lord He fights for us

Hold on; our God

Is a mighty warrior

God, He is faithful