{"id":335,"date":"2020-05-23T09:13:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T16:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/?p=335"},"modified":"2020-05-23T09:13:37","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T16:13:37","slug":"do-you-live-with-fear-or-in-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/23\/do-you-live-with-fear-or-in-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you live with fear or in fear?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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2 Corinthians 1:9-10<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Do you live with fear or in<\/g> fear? Boy, what a question to start the day with. If you’re like me, after months of listening to experts tell us about the ins and outs of COVID-19, the dos and don’ts, post from different doctors and healthcare workers, I’m a little confused and just a wee bit scared. Why? Well, all this information is overloading my brain and I don’t know what to believe or not to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dark side of this information overload is the lies that lead us to fear. From there we seek out answers from people that are no more knowledgeable than ourselves about what’s truly going on. So what do we . . . or I should say I do? Well, as I stated in an earlier post, I turned off the TV and opened my Bible. It seems such an easy task to do, but it actually wasn’t. It took some push from a few amazing women at my church and technology, (mostly Zoom) before I did. What I found was a whole lot of comfort and more importantly, the truth. Now granted, if you’re not a Christian the Bible won’t be your go-to source, but if you’ll just indulge me this once. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dose of truth: God loves you and me. He didn’t create me different from you . . . maybe in gender, eye, skin, or hair color, but our human make up is the same. I know without a doubt, you have had the same fears that I have during this time of coronavirus. You’re probably just as confused about things as I am and frustrated. You’ve seen the ads on TV; even famous athletes and movie stars are telling you they’re in the same predicament you are. The glorious thing about God is, He doesn’t care who you are, he loves you, and universally<\/strong><\/em>, God is in control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah 43:1-2 \u2026”Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name<\/span><\/em>; you are mine<\/em><\/span>…” What an honor it is to know that God actually knows us by our names. Why would he care? Because we’re His creation and He’s our father. His name is tattooed on our inner souls; Abba, Father, Lord<\/em>. Isaiah 41:13 “For I am the Lord, your God<\/span><\/em>, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear: I will help you<\/em><\/span>.” I guess you can see the theme here, trust God above all things because He’s here to help us and not forsake us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can believe this, we are to, “Consider it pure joy<\/span><\/em>, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds<\/span><\/em> (COVID-19 would be one of those many kinds), because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish it work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (And here it is folks) If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you.” (James 1:2-5)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we may not like the answers we get from God, but we have to believe “. . . that in all things God works for the good of those who love him . . .” Oddly enough, I am hanging on to these truths and finding great comfort in them. This tiny germ that we all seem to fear, is not in control. You may be scared, and that’s okay, but don’t let it consume you. “Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him<\/g> we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love to all,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larissa <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you live with fear or in fear? Boy, what a question to start the day with. If you’re like me, after months of listening to experts tell us aboutContinue readingDo you live with fear or in fear?<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larissaself.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}