Thank you for your response.
Your comments are worthy of my thoughtful deliberation.
Blessings!
This is actually a fascinating subject and worthy of further discussion.
Fear is both good and bad. The greatest fear we have is the fear of the unknown. It is a battle we go through almost daily. There have been times when fear has served me well. There have also been times when fear did nothing for me. "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" Matthew 6:27 (NIV)
I must admit that there are times when I start off my day with worry, but, after prayer and contemplation, I look at Matthew 6: 25 - 34 and put is back in proper perspective. I usually do this, as I drive myself to work. I start off worrying at 5:45 AM and get it together by 6:20 AM.
I believe that the Lord will provide; however, I find that some people do not know what it is that He provides. To some, they believe the Lord will provide, then just sit there and wait for it to come to them with no personal effort. This does not, in my opinion, work. What the Lord provides is opportunities, but it is still incumbent upon us to see the opportunity and do something with it. I can tell you from personal experience that God always provides the opportunity, which is sometimes difficult to see clearly until you take advantage of it. Thus far, with out exception, some of the darkest moments in my life ended up coming with the opportunity to turn these dark times into some of the best results I could have ever imagine. My own salvation was an opportunity that the Lord provided me during one of the darkest low point of my adult life.
Last Friday, I had an opportunity of making this clear to someone. I am currently doing an investigation on a school psychologist who basically committed fraud and, during her interview, lied to me. She ended up resigning, under the false belief that her resignation would result in us ending the investigation. It just does not work that way. She called me on Friday and appeared to be at the end of her emotional rope. She is now worried that her actions will result in the loss of her state license, which would obviously have a serious impact on her private practice, and her ability to support her family. The truth is that, while her work with our school board is over, the fraud was not associated with her practice. So, while I cannot tell her that it is unlikely that the school board will try to take her license, it's not going to happen. Also, because of my position, it would be inappropriate for me to quote scripture to her, but I still quoted Matthew 6:27; leaving out who made the comment and in what context. After about 20 minutes, I could hear the difference in her voice. Basically she committed the fraud because she allowed greed to rule her actions. Her actions made her about $500.00, but it ended her 15 year career with the school board. However, she is still a person and a mother and I sure understand why she is in fear of the unknown. I do now know if she is a believer and she made no comments to me to indicate that she is. All I can do is put her tribulation in the light of Matthew 6: 25 - 34 and pray that she puts all of this in proper perspective.
I also saw the impact of fear (well, the lack thereof), when I was the operations officer in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and was dealing with those that were captured in Afghanistan and brought to GITMO for potential military tribunals. This; however, is another story for another time.
We are imperfect beings easily overwhelmed by this fleshy existence. We are, after all, just human. As I look back at the darkest moments of my life, I can now clearly see why they happened and how our merciful and benevolent Father closed one door and unlocked another. He unlocked it, but left it to be to open it.
"For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:8 (NIV).
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