I thought panic attacks were a made-up thing until a few years ago in December when I nearly had one.
I was standing in the doorway waving goodbye to my family when without warning, unexplained terror went off in me like an airstrike siren. All manner of imagined chaos and tragedy played out in my mind, and my violent pulse told me this was real.
The next thing I knew, I was spilling my Bible open, crying my irrational heart out to God for help.
El Shama heard me.
I blinked blurry tears until I could read the first words I saw on the page:
Don’t be afraid, Daughter…
Your King is coming…
That’s John 12:15.
Relief shrouded and surrounded me like a hug—that’s Him. That’s His Presence.
Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.
~ Philippians 4:7
When the God of Everything wraps His arms around you, to call it a coincidence seems ungrateful at best, blasphemous at worst, so I wrote it down in my journal. Even as I wrote the date, I noticed His fingerprints in the details:
It was December 15…12/15, just like the verse.
I don’t recommend random Bible-flopping…but it is the Living Word of God. I am convinced God takes loving time to smile at us from unexpected, seemingly random places…certainly and especially from Scripture.
Don’t let anyone convince you He doesn’t. He will do anything to show you Love.
His Word is alive because He is alive.
If the Living God did not interact with us, if we had to wait until Eternity to experience Him and be friends with Jesus, you could count me out. I need God now. I need Immanuel here with me now.
Once we choose to believe He will never leave us…
Never will I leave you, never will I abandon you.
~ Hebrews 13:5
And that He is always, always with us…
And remember, I Am always with you…
~ Jesus, {Matthew 28:20}
…everything changes.
Don’t be afraid; just believe.
~ Jesus, {Luke 8:50}
My prayer for you today is that you will choose to see Him everywhere, deliberately making His Presence known to you in ways you may have been dismissing for fear of being wrong. I pray He takes your breath away, astonishing you as you realize what it means to sing, “I once was blind, but now I see.”
Open your eyes and see Him everywhere. Don’t be afraid. Just believe.
“What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
...Lord, I want to see!
~ Luke 18:41
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Hmm it looks much like your site ate my first comment (it was
actually super long) therefore i guess I’ll just sum it up what I
had written and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your site.
I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still a
new comer to everything. Are you experiencing any suggestions for novice blog writers?
I’d certainly appreciate it.
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Hello ~ Thanks for the encouragement! I guess if I were to offer you any advice, it would be, *just write.* Your posts might not always be shared as many times as you’d hoped in the beginning, but later you might receive a private message that it meant the world to one reader. You have to decide in your heart that the one reader is worth writing for. Happy writing!
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Great article, exactly what I was looking for.
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When I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now every time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can take away me from that service? Thanks!
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Oh no, Karl! I’ll see if I can remedy that. In the meantime, if you find that the nuisance doesn’t stop, you might try unsubscribing and re-subscribing. Thanks for letting me know! I’ll see what I can do.
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LOVE IT
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And I so love you!