Shifting My Focus

I am a worrier. I mean a big time worrier!

Anyone who knows me knows this to be true. As long as I can remember I have worried about anything and everything that could go wrong. I have lived much of my life in a state of fear and worry.

This makes what God is calling me into even crazier. The risks he is asking me to take are massive. They are risks that involve a whole lot of faith. There is no way I would have got this far on this journey if God wasn't in it.

However, I spent much of my day today in a state of worry. My mind was playing a game of "worst-case scenario". Over and over again in my head I thought about what could go wrong on this journey. I debated whether or not the possibility of "such and such" happening meant I should quit. I wondered if the possibility of that horrible thing happening actually meant God was telling me to not take that step.

The enemy was pouring fear into me at an incredible rate.

Then I felt God speak to me.

He simply said this: "What would happen if the worst-case scenarios in your head got turned to best-case scenarios?"

Basically, I felt he was telling me to shift my focus away from all the awful possibilities to all the incredible ways God's Kingdom could breakthrough if I kept stepping out in fear. How could I experience more of God's sweetness? How could God use me to invite others into experiencing that sweetness?

I so desperately needed to be asked that question.

Right now, the fear has diminished and I have been left with excitement. There are so many unknowns and ways the enemy has and will continue to deposit fear in me. Oh but God is so much bigger! I just need to hold on to that truth!

God led me to this verse today which I have fallen deeply in love with the beauty of:

"For it was I, the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things." -Psalm 81:10 (NLT)