Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured, Trust

Trusting Others with Who I Am

August 12, 2024

- Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured, Trust

Friends love through all kinds of weather,
and families stick together in all kinds of trouble.
PROVERBS 17:17 (THE MESSAGE)

I love the book of Proverbs. It truly is the Book of Wisdom. Last week we learned from Proverbs how important it is to journey through life with wise, safe and trustworthy friends. There is nothing like a true friend who loves us through the good times and the bad times.

The next step is learning to trust those friends – removing the masks that we think they will like and accept – and allowing those friends to see who we truly are underneath those masks. That is a scary step for most of us – I know it was for me – especially within the Christian community. Because …

“We gain admiration and respect from behind a mask. We can even intimidate. But as long as we are behind a mask, any mask, we will not be able to receive love. Then in our desperation to be loved, we will rush to fashion more masks, hoping the next will give us what we’re longing for: To be known, accepted, trusted and loved.” THE CURE (BY JOHN LYNCH, BRUCE MCNICHOL, BILL THRALL)

And the truth is that mask wearing stunts our growth – our maturing process. We will never mature into who we truly are until we learn to remove our masks and reveal our struggles and weaknesses with trustworthy friends. The purpose of friendships is to help one another grow and mature – sharpening us into who we never dreamed we could be.

You can use steel to sharpen steel,
and one friend sharpens another.
PROVERBS 27:17 (THE MESSAGE)

On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

Dealing With Doubt, Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Transformation Step #3 Appreciation after the Storm

By connie on

September 17, 2022

- Dealing With Doubt, Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Be thankful in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you
for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:18 (NLT)

The other morning, I was on my daily walk, and I noticed how crystal-clear and blue the sky was. I had a picture-perfect view of the entire Sun Valley and Camelback Mountain – it was breathtaking. I just took in the view with awe and thankfulness.

But then I remembered why the air was so clear of all the hot dust that is normal for a summer in Arizona – the night before we had torrential rains and winds that “cleared the air.” While the storm that passed over us seemed violent and scary at times, the result was a “clearing of the air” so that we would be able to see such majestic beauty beyond the storm. I was thankful for the storm.

I thought about my own life and the storms that I have endured. I thought about how fearful, scared and alone I felt during those storms – fearful that I would not make it through. But then God reminded me of how the tears that I shed during those storms “cleansed my soul” and not one tear was wasted because He was faithful to show me the way through producing His beauty within me. I am thankful in ALL circumstances now – even the storms of life because I know what they produce.

I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
ECCLESIASTES 3:10-11 (NLT)

On the journey with you,
Jan Dravecky

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

LOOSENING THE GRIP OF FEAR

By connie on

January 31, 2022

- Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Living in fear of the future cheats you out of today. A precious moment tugs
on your heart like a child at your sleeve. Too often you miss that moment
concerning yourself with something that likely won’t happen
or will happen in a way that your worry can NOT CHANGE.”

DAVE BURCHETTE

Fear today looks a lot different for me than it did years ago. Does it mean that it’s gone away completely or that somehow, I have conquered it? No! But it doesn’t consume me like it used to when I found myself in difficult places, especially if something was going on with me physically. I know that in those difficult moments trusting God by leaning into His promises and the Hope that I have in Jesus, gives me the strength to face those fears. The reality is I’m just passing through this life to spend eternity with Him – no matter how many years I have left on this planet. And that gives me peace.

So let me share what God’s Word says …

There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.
I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.
I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.
ISAIAH 41:10 (THE MESSAGE)

God is love.
When we take up permanent residence in a life of love,
we live in God and God lives in us …
There is no room in love for fear.
Well-formed love banishes fear.
Since fear is crippling, a fearful life –
fear of death, fear of judgement –
is one not yet fully formed in love.
1 JOHN 4:18 (THE MESSAGE)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity,
but of power, love, and self-discipline.
2 TIMOTHY 1:7 (NLT)

I prayed to the Lord, and He answered me.
He freed me from all my fears.
PSALM 34:4 (NLT)

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray.
Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers,
letting God know your concerns.
Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness,
everything coming together for good,
will come and settle you down.
It’s wonderful what happens when Christ
displaces worry at the center of your life.
PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7 (THE MESSAGE)

A Prayer

Dear God,
Speak gently in my silence.
When the loud outer noises of my surroundings
and the loud inner noises of my fears
keep pulling me away from you,
help me to trust that you are still there
even when I am unable to hear you.
Give me ears to listen to your small, soft voice saying:

“Come to me, you who are overburdened, and I will give you rest …
for I am gentle and humble of heart.”

Let that loving voice be my guide.
Amen
HENRI NOUWEN

On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Free From Fear

By connie on

September 2, 2020

- Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Since the children have flesh and blood,
he too shared in their humanity
so that by his death he might destroy him
who holds the power of death – that is, the devil –
and free those who all their lives
were held in slavery by their fear of death.
HEBREWS 2:14-15 (NIV)

As human beings, we are prone to fear, no matter how much we believe in God or heaven. And the fear of death can hold tremendous power over us, as these verses make clear.

God understands the fear common to all humanity. He isn’t the author of death; He is the one who came to vanquish death, and one day He will destroy it. But when it comes to facing death, I am like a child, just flesh and blood. Jesus understands because he took on our human condition to deal with this fear of death.

I realize I will have to face off with fear for the rest of my life – but I don’t have to live in slavery to it! I believe in a mighty God, the resurrected Christ, who proved His power over the grave. Still, I have to admit I’m still afraid on occasion. Now I am learning to admit my fears honestly to God, who understands my human condition.

Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?

It was sin that made death so frightening
and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage,
its destructive power.
But now in a single victorious stroke of Life,
all three – sin, guilt, death – are gone,
the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:55-57 (THE MESSAGE)

On the journey with you,
Jan Dravecky

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured, Hope

ANGEL ATTENDANTS

By connie on

May 6, 2020

- Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured, Hope

At once the Spirit sent Him out into the desert,
and He was in the desert forty days,
being tempted by Satan.
He was with the wild animals,
and angels attended Him.
MARK 1:12-13 (NIV)

We usually notice the first part of verse 13 – the threatening, dark part: Jesus “was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan.” But the last part of this verse (“He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him”) can slip by us without notice. In Jesus’s day many wild animals prowled in this land, but God kept Jesus safe by sending angels to guard Him, just as the Israelites had been guarded in the desert by angelic hosts (Exodus 23:20, 23; 32:34).

When we feel alone, vulnerable or endangered, it is comforting to know that spiritual realities exist beyond our immediate experience. Though we may not sense or feel God’s presence, He is with us. One of the ways He is present is through sending angels to “guard us in our ways” (Psalm 91:11,12). So even it you are feeling all alone, don’t count on it – for “the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him: (Psalm 34:7).

Therefore, angels are only servants –
spirits sent to care for people
who will inherit salvation.
HEBREWS 1:14 (NLT)

On the journey with you,
Jan & Dave Dravecky

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Sanctuary from Fear

By connie on

December 23, 2019

- Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Do not fear what they fear,
and do not dread it.
The Lord Almighty is the one
you are to regard as holy,
he is the one to fear,
he is the one you are to dread,
and he will be a sanctuary.
ISAIAH 8:12-14 (NIV)

I had been programmed for so many years not to admit fear, but rather to be strong and confident, a conqueror. So when fear and doubt hit, it was like a tidal wave engulfing me.

What especially bothered me was the fear of death. Even as a Christian, the fear of dying consumed my thoughts. I did not want to die. I didn’t know what dying involved. All I knew was that I wanted to be around. I loved my wife and kids and I didn’t want to leave them. The fear of losing them consumed me. In an odd sort of way, a passage like Isaiah 8:12-14 really helped. Just knowing that “he will be a sanctuary” was a comfort to my heart. I discovered that God is the only one who can relieve our fears. When we focus on him, even in our fear, we find sanctuary.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
ISAIAH 41:10 (NLT)

On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

Depression, Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

When Sighs Are All There Are

By connie on

May 1, 2019

- Depression, Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Give ear to my words, O Lord,
consider my sighing.
Listen to my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
PSALM 5:1-2 (NIV)

When we find ourselves in deep distress, our words often vanish like smoke. We find our desperate longings cannot be formed into sentences with subject, verb, object. We are like the mute – wordless, with nothing on our lips but sighs.

And yet the Lord hears us!

In Psalm 5 David asks not only that the Lord might hear his words, but that God would consider his “sighing” as well. What else can this mean but that David’s pain had grown too great for words? What words he had he offered in prayer; but this was not enough. David therefore asked the Lord that He might accept even his sighs!

What an amazing God we serve, who hears not only our spoken prayers, but also our speechless sighs. Even when we do not know what to pray for, God’s Word tells us that “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26). And so God meets sigh with sigh – and thus works for our benefit!

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting,
God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along.
If we don’t know how or what to pray,
it doesn’t matter.
He does our praying in and for us,
making prayer out of our wordless sighs,
our aching groans.
He knows us far better than we know ourselves,
knows our pregnant condition,
and keeps us present before God.
That’s why we can be so sure,
that every detail in our lives of love for God
is worked into something good.
ROMANS 8:26-28 (THE MESSAGE)

On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

Fear, Glimpses of Heaven, Hope, Words of Endurance

Glimpses of Heaven Part II

By kate on

April 20, 2017

- Fear, Glimpses of Heaven, Hope, Words of Endurance

“Lets not get too settled in,
too satisfied with the good things down here on earth.
They are only the tinkling sounds
of the orchestra warming up.
The real song is about to break
into a heavenly symphony,
and its prelude is only a few moments away.”
JONI EARECKSON TADA

When I was a young man, I compiled a mental bucket list of things that I hoped would happen before I died. I wanted to get married and have children. When that was checked off, I added grandchildren and other things to the list. All the items on my list of things hoped for before I entered heaven were good things. But how I viewed those things versus eternity showed me that I did not have a good theology of what life after death means. Those things were not just desires. They were very often idols, the “good things that became ultimate things.”

German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died at the hands of the Nazis in World War II for standing up for what he knew was true, was fearless about death.

“Why are we so afraid when we thing about death? …
Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and
fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can
be still and hold fast to God’s Word. Death is not bitter,
if we have not become bitter ourselves. Death is grace,
the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who
believe in him. Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle;
it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize
that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of
joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace. “

Wow. Do I believe that? That was an eye-opening, heart-wrenching indictment of how shallow my faith has been regarding eternity. Death is not the final chapter of our lives; it’s simply the prologue to joy and peace. Have I ever thought of death as God’s greatest gift of grace? Hardly. Yet that is the reality of our faith if we believe the gospel is true.

DAVE BURCHETT STAY-LESSONS MY DOGS TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIFE, LOSS AND GRACE (PUBLISHED BY TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC. 2015)

The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.
But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
2 CORINTHIANS 4:18 (THE MESSAGE)

ON THE JOURNEY WITH YOU,
DAVE & JAN DRAVECKY

Fear, Glimpses of Heaven, Hope, Words of Endurance

Glimpses of Heaven Part III

By kate on

April 6, 2017

- Fear, Glimpses of Heaven, Hope, Words of Endurance

“We are not told in the Scripture
where heaven is.
Nor does it matter.
It will be heaven
and Christ will be there to welcome us home.”
BILLY GRAHAM PEACE WITH GOD (WORD PUBLISHING 1984)

There is a story told of a man close to death who expressed his fear of the end to his doctor. “Please, doctor, tell me what lies on the other side,” the man said.

I don’t know,” the doctor replied quietly.

“You don’t know? But you’re a Christian. How can you not know what is on the other side?”

The doctor’s hand rested on the doorknob of the examination room; on the other side of the door the men could hear scratching and whining. When the doctor opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and nearly knocked him over with boundless happiness.

Turning to the patient, the doctor said, “My dog’s never been in this room before. He didn’t know what was inside, except for one thing. He knew that his master was here. When I opened the door, he leaped in without fear. The same is true for us. I don’t know what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing. I know my Master is there and that is enough.”

That is enough for me, too. I will embrace joy on this earth and look forward to endless joy in heaven because I know my Master is on the other side.

DAVE BURCHETT STAY-Lessons My Dogs Taught Me About Life, Loss, and Grace (Published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2015)

You wisely and tenderly lead me,
and then bless me.
You’re all I want in heaven!
You’re all I want on earth!
PSALM 73:24-25 (THE MESSAGE)

ON THE JOURNEY WITH YOU,
DAVE & JAN DRAVECKY

Fear, Hope, On the Journey Together, Words of Endurance

No Turning Back

By kate on

January 13, 2017

- Fear, Hope, On the Journey Together, Words of Endurance

So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord.
Remember the great reward it brings you!
Patient endurance is what you need now,
so that you will continue to do God’s will.
Then you will receive all that he has promised.
HEBREWS 10:35-36 (NLT)

One of my greatest fears is turning back to my old ways and losing my confident trust in the Lord. I know my sinful and controlling flesh. I know how I am “prone to wander” and take back control of my life finding my own solutions to my pain instead of surrendering and trusting the Holy Spirit within me.

But the Scriptures tell me that patient endurance is what I need in order not to turn back or throw away my confident trust in the Lord. Patient endurance is the strength to continue calmly and without complaint despite fatigue, stress and other adverse conditions.

And where do I find this patient strength? From God’s Spirit within me – for patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that dwells within each and every child of God and “I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

So this New Year I am intent on believing and knowing that there is no turning back for me because I have known and seen the faithfulness of God. (Lamentations 3:23) I can be confident in the Holy Spirit that dwells within me because I know He will never fail me or abandon me. (Hebrews 13:5) And whenever I am “prone to wander” that He will guide and lead me back to “the God I love.” (John 16:13)

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING
BY ROBERT ROBINSON & JOHN WYETH

ON THE JOURNEY WITH YOU,
JAN DRAVECKY

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured, Trust

Trusting Others with Who I Am

Dealing With Doubt, Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Transformation Step #3 Appreciation after the Storm

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

LOOSENING THE GRIP OF FEAR

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Free From Fear

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured, Hope

ANGEL ATTENDANTS

Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Sanctuary from Fear

Depression, Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

When Sighs Are All There Are

Fear, Glimpses of Heaven, Hope, Words of Endurance

Glimpses of Heaven Part II

Fear, Glimpses of Heaven, Hope, Words of Endurance

Glimpses of Heaven Part III

Fear, Hope, On the Journey Together, Words of Endurance

No Turning Back

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