It seems like our lives never slow down. There’s always some deadline coming up or some place to be. I have two different “To Do” lists. I have my college list and my regular household list. It seems that my household to do list is a catch-all and is always being added to. As soon as I finish something, I think of something else to write down. By the end of a day, I realize I have spent no time with God.
Making time to study His word or spend time in prayer is a constant battle for me. I have an extremely hard time concentrating on any current task, so when I sit down to spend even a few minutes in prayer, I get off course and begin to do something else. Each week I meet with a friend for what most people would call discipleship or mentoring. We are currently studying women in the Old Testament from the Melanie Newton Study: Everyday Women, Ever Faithful God. For the first few weeks we both had the habit of doing the reading and questions the day before or the day of our meeting (I once even finished just minutes before she arrived). She challenged us both to work on it a few days before. Therefore, we would for sure have two days to spend time in His word. So far it is working – when one of us finishes, we text the other just to check up during the week and remind each other.
A few weeks ago we finished the first woman we studied in the Old Testament: Sarah. The first real mention of Sarah is the very end of Genesis 11 where she is merely named, Genesis 12 is where her story more or less “begins.” When I began to read her story for the nth time, I realized something new: Sarah is so easy to relate to! She was barren for most of her life which is an irrational fear I struggle with, and she was placed in many situations that could have frozen her in fear, but she chose to be faithful in God.
When you look at those two examples, they have a common theme: FEAR. For most women, this is almost a constant struggle. We are more keen to anxiety and fear than men. God created us this way, but fear doesn’t have to paralyze us. Towards the end of 1 Peter 3:3-6 we read that we are daughters of Sarah and should not give way to fear. That doesn’t mean we should never be afraid! We WILL be afraid many times in our lives. However, God designed us to have fear as a way to alert us to danger and then take action. Did you hear that? When we are afraid, we must TAKE ACTION AGAINST IT. Now that I know I must take action, I can’t just sit in my fright hoping someone will notice and help. I need to take the steps to act on my fear like seeking God and the council of others.
Mackenzie Grace
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Mackenzie is a member of the GE Creative Team and is the youngest of the trio of sisters. As a recent graduate in Family Studies, she uses her degree as the wife of a youth pastor and mentors teen girls. She’s a Nebraska girl living through North Dakota winters mostly by crocheting and sipping chai tea.