She Laughs Without Fear of the Future (Part 4 of Proverbs 31:25)

How do we anticipate the unknown future free of anxiety? Without being crippled by worry, shame, and fear?

The goal is to be open to opportunities without obsessing & controlling the details. We are not called to sit still, but to pursue with our whole heart and our God-given abilities that which God places on our path. God gives us the desires and motivation to pursue certain avenues. We have to pray for confirmation in each step we take. In offering up each step, each decision, we can find comfort in knowing we are doing all we can—we are doing our 10%--while God takes care of everything else—the other 90%. We can laugh without fear of the future because when we let Jesus into our hearts and lives, he tells us “be not afraid, I am with you always.” The key element is that we open our hearts when God knocks. Consolation and peace in our decisions, when we invite God to help us make these decisions in prayer, is how we need to approach the future. One decision, one step at a time. God’s time is not our time, so we shouldn’t jump 10 steps or 10 years ahead.

Our bondage is not physical slavery, but the unfreedom of fear, sin, shame, and guilt. We find ourselves driven by our anxieties and excessive feelings of unrest, crushed by our failed expectations, cowed by stirrings of shame of our cowardice, and intimidated by discouragement and guilt for sometimes fleeing from our deepest call. Sometimes we are like the original wanderers in the desert, roaming in the desert of confusion and emptiness; sometimes we are like the disciples, running from our pain and not knowing exactly where we are going. ~Praying Our Experiences pg. 74-75