{"id":23870,"date":"2015-01-11T00:20:17","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T05:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=23870"},"modified":"2015-01-10T23:59:28","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T04:59:28","slug":"afraid-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/11\/afraid-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are You Afraid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with His disciples.
\nSuddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat.
\nBut Jesus was sleeping.
\nThe disciples went and woke Him up, shouting,
\n\u201cLord, save us! We\u2019re going to drown!\u201d
\nJesus responded, \u201cWhy are you afraid? You have so little faith!\u201d
\nThen He got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.
\nThe disciples were amazed. \u201cWho is this man?\u201d they asked.
\n\u201cEven the winds and waves obey Him!\u201d
\nMatthew 8:23-27 NLT<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Luke 8:25a (NIV) asks a tough question: \u201cWhere is your faith<\/strong><\/em><\/span>?\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing I have learned\u2014if I am afraid…I have lost my faith in God. \u00a0I am no longer trusting in Him. \u00a0It means I don\u2019t trust Him not to hurt me. \u00a0It means I don\u2019t believe He has my best interest at heart. \u00a0When I trust God and place my faith completely in Him, there is little room left for fear or doubt.<\/p>\n

Bad things happen<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0Whether it is a result of my poor choices, someone else\u2019s choice, a trial I must go through, or discipline I need…bad things happen<\/strong>. \u00a0It is a fact of life. Hebrews 12:11 (NIV) states, \u201cNo discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.\u201d \u00a0What I must remember is that God is in control<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0 And there is a purpose for the bad things. Everything in my life has been filtered through Him.<\/p>\n

Being a Christian doesn\u2019t mean bad things won\u2019t happen. \u00a0Storms will come at us, tossing us to and fro. \u00a0But those storms are much easily weathered when we cling to our Rock. \u00a0The second part of Matthew 8:26 (HCSB) reminds us \u201cThen He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look at 2 Samuel 22:3 AMP:<\/p>\n

My God, my Rock, in Him will I take refuge;
\nmy Shield and the Horn of my salvation;
\nmy Stronghold and my Refuge, my Savior\u2014You save me from violence.<\/p>\n

With God as our Rock, we have no reason to be afraid. <\/span>
\nAll it takes is placing our faith in Him alone<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/h4>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n

Father, please forgive me when I feel afraid. \u00a0Remind me You are my Rock and my Refuge. \u00a0When fear pokes at me, bring doubts to mind, strengthen my faith in You. \u00a0For if You are with me, who can stand against me?\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name I pray \u2013 Amen, It Is So.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with His disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him up, shouting, \u201cLord, save us! We\u2019re going to drown!\u201d Jesus responded, \u201cWhy are you afraid? You have so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[8199,5889,3367,8203,8200,7834,3174,8204,8202],"class_list":["post-23870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-2-samuel-223","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-hebrews-1211","tag-luke-825","tag-matthew-823-27","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-where-is-your-faith","tag-why-are-you-afraid","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-6d0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23872,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23870\/revisions\/23872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}