Choose life-thoughts

By: Carole L. Haines

The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.
from Oswald Chambers, The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 537 L

It’s amazing how bad news can pile up on you, and down you fall into the pits of fear.  Our lives are so much more out of our control then we ever think about.  But they are never out of God’s control.  Two people we know committed suicide recently, and I was so haunted by some “what-if’s” and “if only,” scenarios. Could I have done something more, to help them, to encourage them.  I generally never saw these people, but I still felt I wanted to have done more, been more somehow, to help them.
I started to become afraid of how it will be for me, at the end of my life.  Will I be that lonely, discouraged, or despairing?  But then I read this quote from Oswald Chambers, “The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.”
I can’t control what happens in life, but I can control what I choose to focus on.
I am choosing God.
I am choosing to stop feeling guilty about what I could not prevent.
I am choosing to trust God with My Own future.
I am choosing to fix my eyes, my thoughts, my heart on Jesus, right now, right here.
He is the author and perfecter of my faith, and he says this, ²⁸ “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NASB).
To cause or permit one to cease from any movement or labour in order to recover and collect his strength. (Blue Letter Bible)
This is the kind of rest Jesus says He will give us, and it is not just a physical rest, it is a spiritual rest. A rest from anxious thoughts, fears and self-accusations. I couldn’t be there, I wasn’t there, I am not Omni-present, like God is. I must cease to accuse myself, and give myself to Jesus. I have been weary and heavy-laden with grief, false guilt, and fear this past week, and it stops here, in Jesus hands.
Perhaps some of you have been struggling the same as I have.  Choose God, choose Jesus, choose life-thoughts from Him. Let everything else fall to the ground and let Him pick you up. You can’t be everywhere, but you can be His.