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“Sometimes we try to control what we don’t understand.”

A thought by Maria Goff (2017-03-07) from her book, Love Lives Here: Finding What You Need in a World Telling You What You Want (Kindle Location 1696). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

That’s the way to do it, isn’t it?  Control is the key…isn’t it?

Maria says, “I remember trying to survive my fears by controlling the things that made me afraid. I felt the need to control circumstances, outcomes, and people like they came with steering wheels. I thought if I could dodge making eye contact with a teacher or do everything perfectly, I could escape the people who made me feel vulnerable and insecure. Sadly, it didn’t work; it never does. Fear delights in our attempts to avoid or ignore it. The antidote that gives us the buoyancy to rise above our fear is found in love and hope and the kind of peace we don’t try to manufacture but experience in courageous gratitude.”

She goes on, “Peace fills up from beneath love’s reservoir, not above it. It’s not a layer; it’s the overflow, the surplus. It’s not what’s left over; it’s the origin and it’s most available and abundant where courage and faith flow the strongest. We find it as a little girl at a YMCA camp on Catalina Island or as a soldier in a firefight. When we’re feeling vulnerable and afraid, we can’t experience the supernatural peace that comes from God’s brand of hope and love. Faith doesn’t eliminate fears in my life; it lets me know I had someone I could bring them to.”

And there it is, you bring them to the One who really loves you, Christ, who can take care of those fears.  As you give them to Him and trust Him to take care of you, He gives you His love and peace that weakens the hold that your fear has on you.


So, will you let His love and peace fill you?
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