Scripture Scribbles: June 25, 2023 - Morning

the Gospel

Matthew 10:26-33

Jesus said to the Twelve:
"Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father."

the devotion

Fear is a trap the devil snares me in quite often.

The Lord has given me the grace to see how the evil one uses it to seduce, tempt, confuse, and blind me.

And before I know it, I’ve fallen into a pit. I’m tangled in a mess of lies. Stumbling over my racing thoughts. And frenzied over my anxious list of to-dos.

One morning, during a period in which I was trapped in a vicious cycle of fear, I sat praying on my front porch. Watching the sun rise and sparkle through the bustling trees, I took in a deep breath. I took a sip of my iced coffee, and suddenly, I felt the Lord speak very clearly to my heart:

What are you afraid of?

What am I afraid of? Hm. Not much. I mean, I think there was a time when I was afraid of the dark back when I was little. I am not particularly fond of amusement park rides.

But I knew he meant something much deeper than these surface level fears. Fear, He was showing me, was the cause of all this tension. The racing thoughts. The never-ending to-do lists. The tensed up feeling in my shoulders.

I felt my shoulders relax, suddenly aware just how tightly I’d been pinching them together. I sat back into prayer and listened, open to what He had for me.

At the root of every fear is a desire. What is it you are hoping for?

The Holy Spirit led me into a prayer exercise to turn my fear into hope. It went something like this:

• What are you afraid of?
  Another way of asking this is: What are you anxious about right now?
  Don’t stop at the surface-level fear. If you follow the fear to its conclusion, what lies there? What are you really afraid of, at its core?
  Write each one down.

• What are you hoping for?
  Another way of asking this is: What do you desire?
  At the root of each item you wrote above there is an unmet desire.
  Think about it. The flip side of your fear is actually hope.
  Write down the hope for each of the fears you listed above.

• What do you want Me to do?
  Share your hopes with God. Often, for me, it is a prayer of hope for someone, for a particular outcome to a certain situation, or for healing in some area of my life or heart.
  Write down your requests.

• Surrender.
  Hold each hope up individually in your mind’s eye. Imagine yourself picking it up off the ground and handing it to God. Give each one to Him and allow Him to take it out of your sight.
  Then simply just be with Him. Receive His perfect love.

[CLICK HERE to download as a free printable prayer card]

After I did this, I felt about ten pounds lighter. All of my fears had been named, exposed, transformed by God’s grace, and *poof* turned into hopes that I could openly give to God.

Fear no one. Do not be afraid.

Jesus tells us today. Fear is an indicator God gives us to let us know there is something deeper going on. If we are feeling afraid, anxious, tense, frustrated, restless, or worried, it is a good sign that we have some fears we need transformed into hopes.

Bring all of your fears to the Healer today, friend. Let Him miraculously transform them into hopes.

Perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:18)

“When I see that the burden is beyond my strength, I do not consider or analyze it or probe into it, but I run like a child to the Heart of Jesus and say only one word to Him, 'You can do all things.’”

-Saint Faustina

Today’s devotion is written by Rachel Smith