January 14, 2020
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7
I have recently been realizing how much I limit myself because of fear. We were created in the image of God, who is love, to be loved by him and then love others. However, I cannot live in his love or love others when my heart is fearful. A very practical example is thinking and saying “I cannot do this or that but I wish I could” such as being creative in cooking, learning to play guitar, etc.
Jesus, through whom the whole universe was created, lives in me and I in him and he is neither fearful or lacking in any gifting or skill needed for daily life. After a rather good time of sitting with Jesus this morning I was a little unsettled. It seemed that I needed to do something by faith that fear had hindered me in before. Later I remembered an oak kitchen table chair that had needed repair of a split in the seat for over 6 years. I never felt the confidence to tackle the repair so it has been in our garage or storage building all those years.
Today I had the confidence to tackle the repair. At first I was a little anxious as I thought about how to proceed. But then creative thoughts began to come to me on how to disassemble, glue & clamp and eventually reinforce to seat. It was a great joy to get it to the point shown in the photo after I applied glue and clamped it tight.
The creative solution and confidence came from my time of fellowship with Jesus this morning. The fellowship continued in the work as he showed me what to do which brought me joy and a sense of well-being. His desire was fellowship not just showing me how to repair the chair but the chair is now well into the process of being repaired as a result.
Our Father is good and his love endures forever. He desires to show us his goodness in everything we encounter.
Blessings,
Kevin