Fears

"I believe that God will give us all the strength we need to help us in times of distress. But He never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not on Him alone. A faith such as this should allay all our fears for the future." -Dietrich Boenhoffer


I've been thinking a lot about the fears that I have of the future and the feeling of wanting to be in control. It seems that when we are in the midst of great pain, we are often able to surrender to God and it becomes clear that we don't really have control anyway. 


Then when life is good, we tend to be lax, but we also tend to orchestrate our circumstances more to control while we can, or at least feel like we are in control. 


My husband and I began reading some of "The Practice of the Presence of God" and one of the things that Brother Lawrence speaks of is the simple knowing that if God is in control of the things that are fearsome to us, then why should we even trouble ourselves with them? In other words, deep down we know that God IS in control and we are NOT, so why should we even trouble ourselves? 


This concept can only make sense if you pair it with another: A relationship with God is simply to seek him each moment of our day. When we do this, not only are we at peace and at rest, but we know that we are safe and in faith. 


Such a faith as this allays all of our fears simply because we are living in the presence of God.