Truth

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" - John 8:32

I'm learning that the things I fear often tend to not be reality. I'm afriad of things that have not happened, may not happen, and probably will never happen. Most of the time, I am afraid because I don't have correct facts about things and sometimes I do have correct facts, but I fail to trust God and understand that he is bigger than my circumstances. I've decided that I need to start learning to check my facts before I start to fear as much as I do. For example, I was recentlty told about a letter that the president of Iran wrote to President Bush saying that we all needed to convert to Islam or else they would force us to. I was also told not to read the letter online because I scare too easily and there was no reason to upset myself. So I didn't read it, but continued to live in fear over this. Today I decided to read the letter, just out of curiousity and you know what? It doesn't say that. No where in the letter does it say "Convert to Islam or we will make you" and as a matter of fact, I don't think it implies that unless I missed something. My point? I was afraid of something that I didn't have the facts about and wasn't even true. I need to start getting facts before I run my mind. Usually my mind takes me to places I don't need to go. The world is scary enough these days so why am I making things worse for myself by worrying about things that arent reality. This has got to be one of the biggest things that consumes my mind. The other thing that consumes me is I also tend to worry about finances. I'm starting to realize that its a dumb thing to worry about for 2 reasons. 1. God is in control no matter what. 2. I'm learning that we have more than enough to live by. I tend to worry because our savings account isn't getting filled up fast enough. I want to have security in case something happens or have enough saved for a house. I always want everything right away, but then I need to stop and realize I'm doing what I need to do and eventually I will get there. As long as I'm following Biblical principals for finances then I'm doing what I should do. I've even started envelopes to set aside money for different activities that Isaac and I would like to be part of with church ex. conferences and camp. (If you ask me, I think I handle our savings very well) Then each month I tend to get overwhelmed when I see tons of bills come in and panic, thinking I will never be able to pay everything. But if I step back and look at reality, I have many bills, but they are small bills and we always have finances left over. I have been looking at my life and getting overwhelmed by things that aren't even there. I took time to evalute our finances and realized that I'm really not in bad shape at all. My bills are paid. I have a place to live. I have food on the table. I have money saved up. And we have extra left over for the little things we may want for enjoyment. If we want to do something that requires a good chunk of finances, then I need to save little by little for it. So with all of that laid out- where is my problem? Its in my perspective. When I sit down and look at where I am at, I realize that it is not bad AT ALL. I think I need to learn to sit down and think things out before I panic. This post has been written as I thought things out. This is what needs to be done in all areas of my life. I need to stop and think about whether my fears have any base in reality. And then if my fears do have a base in reality, I need to give them to the Lord and do what his word says:

"Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you"- 1 Peter 5:7

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things." - Philippians 4:8