HomeI Peter 3:5-6 isn't a passage of Scripture I ever thought I'd be meditating on under the twinkling lights of a silent Christmas night, but the more I've chewed on its words this past year the more deeply they've burrowed into my heart.
We are Sarah's children if we "do good and do not fear anything that is frightening."
Sarah. An ordinary woman whose hope in an extraordinary God landed her in Hebrews 11: "And by faith Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered Him faithful who had made the promise."
Sarah. An ordinary woman of extraordinary imperishable beauty. An ordinary woman of extraordinary faith who hoped in God.
Sarah. An ordinary woman of extraordinary courage who didn't fear what was horrifically frightening.
Sarah. An extraordinary woman of grace.
The difficult reality of life in this fallen world is that the grotesque and gnarly claws of Fear will never stop reaching out to choke confident joy and peace from our hearts. Fear and its sidekick Insecurity will forever seek to lure us into its dark shadows. Sometimes in our human frailty we will follow, and maybe even far enough that we'll find ourselves fearing we won't ever be able to escape. But the glorious promise in the midst of this difficult reality is that the bountiful grace of our beautiful Redeemer is wholly sufficient to keep us from ever being wholly undone by its destruction.
I like the wording of the NIV: "You are Sarah's daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear."
This world is a frightening place filled with many frightening things. Singlehood is frightening. Dating is frightening. Marriage is frightening. Divorce is frightening. Parenting is frightening. Friendship is frightening. Government is frightening. Death is frightening. Even the Church is frightening.
But Hallelujah! A Child is Born! And because of the birth of an incarnate Savior who lived the perfect life we could never live, we don't have to remain chained in fear to all that is frightening. With fixed hope in God, he will deliver us.
As a woman who sets her hope in God alone, it is without fear of all that is frightening that I wish a Merry Christmas to all my dear friends and faithful readers of LifeHurts. Your ongoing kind encouragement has been a beautiful balm of grace that has oiled my heart and mind with the needed motivation to keep my pen to the plough. I can't thank you enough, and I only wish I had the opportunity to know each of you and express my gratitude personally. If Christ is your claimed Savior, I look forward to that day when we will celebrate our freedom together in all our glorified perfection. Glorified fearless perfection. In our glorious eternal home where nothing is frightening.