Listen If You are Struggling With Fear or Anxiety!

Recently, the Lord has been speaking to me a lot about storms and how when we are in a season of transition like I believe we are right now, the storm ushers in the new that the Lord wants to do. And storms tend to bring an opportunity for a lot of fear or intimidation, especially if we focus on the storm. And so transitions into new seasons can seem very chaotic and very scary. And on a call recently with my client, she was processing this with me about how she was really struggling with her season of transition.

And the Lord revealed to her in our session that it's because she fears the unknown. And she had been taught like a lot of people have been um that you have to be in control in control of people or situations or um you know control outcomes in order to feel safe and in order to feel comfortable. And the Lord was revealing to her that this came from a lack of knowing who she is in him, knowing who she is to him and knowing who he is. And uh the Lord gave me Isaiah 49:16 for her and I believe it's for us right now.

And it says, "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are ever before me." And if you are in a season like this where the transition just has you scared, where it's triggered your need for control, where it's a lot of fear or intimidation with that has come with this storm, I just want to encourage you, friend. He has not forgotten you. He can't.

You're literally engraved in the palm of his hands and your walls are ever before him. He cares so deeply for you and he is so intimately involved with all of the dealings of your life that you don't have to be scared. You can let go. You can trust him.

Um and the Lord led me to share an open vision encounter that I had a long time ago when I was in a season of transition that was stormy and scary. And um in this vision, it was like I was physically there, like the Lord had like teleported me back in time. And it was like I was Peter and there was this huge storm and it was like lightning and thunder and huge waves and it was dark and terrifying. And the Lord put his hand out to me and told me to come.

And I told him, "Lord, I don't want to. I don't want to. This is so scary. I don't want to go out of the boat." And the Lord spoke to me very clearly and he said to me, Nicole, the only reason that you are scared is because you fear for your life.

And that struck me then and it still strikes me now. He was speaking to me about the whole basis of Christianity of our faith. It is that we have lost our lives. We have given our lives fully to Christ, fully for the kingdom of God.

We have died with him. Our old lives, our will, our way has died with him. And we have been resurrected in new life, hidden in him. That's our life now.

And so when we truly live that way, we don't fear for our own lives. We don't fear for the things that we want. We don't try to control because our lives are fully given already. Um, and it brought me to Revelations 12:11.

And it says, "We overcome by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony." And so many preachers love to leave out the last part, which I think is the most important in our Christian faith. And it says, "And not loving our own lives unto death." That's how we overcome in this life. That's how we live a truly surrendered, given, Christfilled, hidden in Christ life. Um, so if we are truly Christians and real followers of Christ, we have died to ourselves and we no longer fear losing our lives, our own will, our own way.

And so we have a choice right now in this season of transition, in this season um that looks stormy. And it is to either focus on the face of Christ, on him or taking our eyes off of him and looking at the storm and looking at the chaos and being overwhelmed by that. And it is our choice to focus on him who is the author and finisher of our faith who can be fully trusted. Um and as I was on this client call, God reminded me of the quote um from Narnia and it says something like he is not safe but he is good.

And I just want to encourage you with that that although we may not understand his ways, we may not understand, you know, like it may not look like our idea of safety, he is always after the ultimate good, after our ultimate good. Like it says in Romans 8:28, it's like if um he works all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And I just want to encourage you today, friend, to fix your gaze on Jesus in the storm, in the chaos. Trust in his goodness and in his nature.

And rest, rest, rest, rest in the storm and in the transition. And trust that he is going to bring you into safe harbor.