The Root Of All My Fears
Most of our insecurity and fears are surface symptoms with a deep root. The Lord deals with our weaknesses to make us strong. I have battled insecurity and fear most of my life. It started the moment my head hit the road so hard that it caused a bone growth on my forehead and a brain tumor. The bike wreck happened when I was five years old. The trauma of what followed with surgery and doctor check-ups for most of my younger years opened the door to a giant
fear. A door that was never shut until recently.
I spoke at a conference awhile back in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I was checking out hotel prices. They were so high I wouldn't have been able to sleep at night. I kept looking around for a reasonable priced one. I found it, "The Cemetery Inn" near the battlefields. Arriving home after that weekend, greeting my wife, she said, "So and so called and he wants you to call him about those two cemetery plots he offered you a long time
ago."
I couldn't help but think. I just came from "The Cemetery Inn" and now someone is offering me two cemetery plots at half price. The half price concerned me too. I said, "Lord, I don't like the timing of this. I just came from ministering for You all weekend. What is going on?" Two days later I was to meet the brother at the cemetery memorial park to sign the transfer papers. After I arrived, I got tired of waiting in the office for him so I went
outside.
When I walked outside all I could see were grave markers. As an eerie feeling came over me, the Lord spoke, "Son, this is the root of all your fears your whole life. Every doctor visit and the fear of every report of your physical exams. You are afraid to die. You battled it since the moment your head hit the road when you were five years old. When you were seven with a brain tumor death hounded you again. Then eighteen years ago with a blood clot in the artery
of your heart with a fifty-fifty chance of survival it stampeded you again. Three days later with a heart catheterization your heart stopped on that table and they jumped it back to beat again. Have you noticed by now I have never let you die? I still hold the keys to Hell, death and the grave."
He continued, "What do you think about the Scripture that says, 'To be absent from the body is to be present with Me?' No pain, no doctors, no devil. Fully alive in My unspeakable presence forever and ever? What are your thoughts on this?"
For a moment I was speechless. He was right. I just faced my worst fear that had made me vulnerable to an endless list of others. I failed to compare it to eternity. That day I found peace in a cemetery. As I left those grave markers, He spoke again, "By the way son, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave lives in you. Go live! Go live! Don't be afraid of living, enjoy every minute of it."
What's your fear? Losing a loved one, a job, or your reputation? Maybe you are afraid to die and afraid to live. Bring your fears to Jesus today. Let His peace envelope you with His perfect love casting out all fear. Tell Him you are in this for the long haul no matter what.
Morning Impressions...
