The Friendliest of Experiences

It suddenly dawned on me the other day that our hopes and dreams are directly connected to our fears. I wondered if there is a single hope out there in the universe that doesn’t have a fear or a few fears attached to it. Sort of like the two sides of a coin, one side is the hope you hold out for something and the other is the fear that that hope will not work out. Think about it for a second, what is one thing you are hoping for right now? Now, is there a fear attached to it? I would be surprised if there would be a single person out there that would deny the presence of fear hiding somewhere in the shadow of a hope.
My hopes here are of course that all would go well, that our family would thrive even under all the various stresses of moving here. I hope that our finances will be provided for us, our church will grow with new believers, and strong Christians who are moving to the area and need a good church. I hope for health and strength emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually to meet the challenges that each day brings. These are just a few of my hopes in a long and over worked list of hopes. But each one has a "what if" kind of fear that is lurking around the corners of my heart and mind. It seems to try and eat away at my faith and my hopes.
How do we deal with such fears? Move on, pretend they are not there? Sometimes I suppose, but what about prayer? I prayed that God would take all my hopes and dreams and each fear I could think of that was associated with them all and surrendered them to Him! The fears left and the hopes grew stronger. I think prayer has got to be one of the friendliest experiences of a human beings life. Conversations with a God who is your friend and has your best interests in mind. What a great faith we have. Cast all your cares on him for he cares for you.
God is Good All the Time.