When Fear Becomes Greed (yes, it's a thing)....and, #bebrave

I tell my husband regularly, "Someday....someday, when we are traveling, and aren't always in such a rush to get to the next speaking event, I want to stop more and take pictures of two things I love to see: old churches and barns."

I'm not sure why they stir my soul, but they do.

I'm moved by them.

Were I to go back and look at old photos, I already have quite a collection.

However, currently I have more churches than barns.

I especially love all the old barns back in Pennsylvania Amish country, the ones that have quilt patterns painted on the sides; but, any old barn is stunning to me.

We have a barn.

It's old.

It's not stunning.

It actually looks like it could collapse at any moment.

The other thing about our barn is that it's not being used for what it is meant to be used for...it's more like a garbage dump, than a place for animals or storage.

Our barn is where stuff we need to get rid of goes to die!

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Last Thursday, I began what will become a series (for who knows how long) on these siblings: fear, anxiety, worry and disappointment.

Actually, the series is more about living out #bebrave, and not letting those very intense emotions dictate how I live my life.

But, before we can #bebrave, we need to explore how it is they come to have such control over us.

This was the verse we started with:

As we began exploring this passage of Scripture, we looked at the word that is translated "sought."

It's not just general praying.

It's not even a simple "cry for help."

This kind of praying is desperate, detailed (specific), and determined.

To pray our fears away takes a lot of effort!

I don't want to hear that!

I want the magic-wand-kind-of-prayer.

I want the kind where you offer up your need, and the Almighty, Sovereign Lord in Heaven waves His magic wand, like any good fairy would, and rights my world.

But God isn't a good fairy, and that's not how our God works.

He sees a bigger picture, and He is making sure that what He has planned will be accomplished...

The thing we need to remember in the midst of it all is that 1) He is working (in spite of how we feel)....and, 2) What He works out is for our good!

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Now, let's look at the word that is translated "fear" in Psalm 34:4.

Interesting word: Megura (Hebrew) - the first part of the word refers to a fear, a terror, a fright; and, the second part of the word means to lodge, to store, to abide (LOOK AT THIS: it refers most often to a BARN, a place of STORAGE).

I do that with my fears, worries, anxieties, and disappointments.

I start building a barn to store them in.

Then, I find I need bigger barns.

More barns.

Before, I know it, I am barn rich and courage poor.

You?

I know why I do it.

I think (rather unreasonably) that if I store my fear and anxiety away in a safe place, then I will be able to have control over them.

Over life.

As the realization hit me, I recognized how irrational that whole philosophy is.

The more I store, the more it consumes.

Why?

To store = Control.

To Control = Greed

And, greed when it is unleashed becomes all-consuming.

I begin to "treasure" my fear; and, then I live for what I "treasure."

All of a sudden, my fear, anxiety, worry and disappointment are my treasures.

And, now I'm afraid to let them go...I've worked hard to store them up.

Invested a lot of my energy into them...

Heaven forbid!

I think in Psalm 34, David has come to the same realization.

When he did, he sought the Lord.

He got desperate.

He got specific.

He began paving his way to the many barns he had built with praise and prayer...

...and the Lord answered.

Together, they threw open the barn doors; and, they began emptying out the barns of all the garbage that was consuming and controlling David.

The Lord God wants to do the same with us.

He longs to come along side us, and sift through the barns we've built...clean them up, organize them, and then fill those barns with other treasures.

He's waiting for us to simply ask!

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life...

...But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Matthew 6:19-21, 25, 33

Instead of storing up fear, anxiety, worry, disappointment...store up heavenly treasures.
Seek how God would want to work through us to further His Kingdom.
And, let's fill our barns with being about His business...
Get busy....
...Start working His will into our lives and the result????

 #bebrave!