Fear, Courage, and Love
These three words have been bouncing around in my head for the past few weeks. I have realized how much I live in fear and anxiety, crave courage, and desire to feel God's love at all times. These three words have also been the main themes of three songs I have been listening to over and over again these past few weeks...let me back up a little bit and explain. I love to work out to music, particularly worship music. It relaxes me and helps me start my day off focusing on the Lord and giving all the glory to Him. Music has always been a big part of my life. I am a very emotional person; however, when it comes to expressing my emotions and putting them into words, I have a really hard time. But when I listen to a song, sometimes the lyrics resonate with me to a point where I exclaim "That's it!!! That's how I feel!" When this happens, I usually listen to the song over and over again as a sort of release to help me sort through my thoughts and feelings. This happened the past few weeks with three songs in particular:
"Believer" by Audio Adrenaline
"Courageous" by Casting Crowns
"Your Love is Like a River" by Third Day
These songs have made a huge impact in my thought processes the past few weeks. "Believer" is a song that starts out by saying "I want to live my life unsafe, unsure, but not afraid." Whoa...really? The minute I heard those words I got to thinking...do I want to live my life that way? And if I do want to live unsafe and unsure, isn't "not afraid" kind of an oxymoron to those first two conditions? But then, the chorus came. And everything made sense:
"Cause I’m already out here, blind but I can see I see the way You’re moving God how I believe that
I can push back the mountains, can stand on the waves I can see through the darkness, I’ll hold up the flame Take me to the ocean I want to go deeper I’m not afraid no, I’m a believer"
I realized that yes, I can live my life unsafe, unsure, and NOT afraid because God is moving and I should believe that I can do all those things above such as "push back mountains" and "see through the darkness" because I am a BELIEVER in God and what He can accomplish through me. Why fear??
The second song "Courageous" got me by its first words as well, which state, "we were made to be courageous." Pretty simple, right? We weren't made to live in fear; we were made to be courageous! However, I really believe that courage is something that is fought in the mind. It's really a mind over matter type thing, which means that we have to guard our minds and remember that we were made to be courageous and unafraid. The song continues to say: "in the war of the mind I will make my stand, in the battle of the heart and the battle of the hand." This phrase definitely struck a chord with me, because there are many times when we have to make our stand and make a decision in our minds that we are going to be courageous, believe what God says about us and who He created us to be, and not be afraid. Why did God make us to be courageous? To not live in fear? It all comes down to love, which brings me to the next song.
"Your Love is Like a River" is a beautiful depiction of how God's love is alive and flows within us and to others. The lyrics express many different states that we as humans find ourselves in:
"When I am tired and so afraid Your love is like a fire that will light my way When darkness comes and my vision fades Your love is like a fire that will light my way And it's always burning and stirring my soul To know You and love You much more It never stops or ever fades Your love is like a fire that will light my way"
God's love is always there and within us whether we are scared, can't see where we are headed, or when "all our strength and hope is gone." God's love is always there and is the "rock that we are standing on!" See why I love this song so much?? :) No matter what situation we find ourselves in, God's love is never going to fail us or fade away. It will ALWAYS light our way.
So, in essence, we don't need to be afraid. We can live unsure, unsafe, and NOT in fear, because we were made to be courageous. We can take a stand in this war that we are constantly fighting, because we are filled with, and are standing on God's love. It never fails us, never fades, never stops.