{"id":13345,"date":"2020-10-18T04:58:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-18T09:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=13345"},"modified":"2020-10-18T04:58:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T09:58:37","slug":"wise-and-cautious-without-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=13345","title":{"rendered":"Wise and Cautious Without Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I have spoken to many people who are very cautious about these times when we are urged to wear masks, regularly sanitize, and keep social distances because of the pandemic. Maybe they\u2019ve had a loved one that tested positive for the virus or even lost a loved one. I can understand their concern. But if you listen to them, you\u2019ll hear that they are tinged with fear about what each day holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I get that we need to be wise and cautious, but I feel compelled to offer these words: We can&#8217;t stop living based off of things that MIGHT happen. But, we shouldn\u2019t be reckless with our lives either. I remember Jesus saying to Satan when he was trying to tempt Him: \u201cTempt not the Lord Your God.\u201d We should never try to put God to the test of careless living. But please hear my heart. If I went by \u201cfamily history\u201d \u2013 my brother and sister with Alzheimer\u2019s, a sister with Diabetes, my father with brain cancer, and mother with heart disease &#8211;I would be plagued with fear with every little ache and pain that I had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I am urging us all to do is to make the most of each moment we have because we never know what tomorrow brings. We should make this day count with joy, peace, hope and great faith that God has us in His sovereign hands. We could stay home and hibernate from here to eternity. We could pull the shades down with a \u201cDo not disturb\u201d sign on our front door. We could play it safe and not live an adventurous life. But God didn\u2019t call us to surrender to fear, worry, and unbelief. If you and I, as bold and brave believers in the abundant life that Jesus came to give us, succumb to the tactics of the enemy to \u201ckill, steal and destroy us\u201d (John 10:10), then we\u2019ll NEVER step out into the sunshine of God\u2019s grace. I want to live a bold and brave life, facing my fears and truly living despite adversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the thing \u2013 on tombstones, there is the date of birth then a dash and then a date of death. What do we want our dash to look like? I\u2019m still working at it and purposing my dash to include these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>I loved everyone because I knew we are all God\u2019s kids.<\/li><li>I was grateful for even my smallest blessings.<\/li><li>I did everything with gratitude, joy and love.<\/li><li>I worked hard and didn\u2019t complain\u2026.much.<\/li><li>I respected others.<\/li><li>I trusted that God was with me every step of the way.<\/li><li>I cherished creation. I got out in it and saw God everywhere!<\/li><li>I forgave. I didn\u2019t hold on to anger or grudges.<\/li><li>I let go of things I couldn\u2019t control.<\/li><li>I loved God with all my heart, my soul, and my mind.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe and know, from scripture, that God has our lives planned right through to eternity. I trust Him with my life and wholeheartedly determine to live each day like there is no tomorrow. I do that because I know Who holds my todays and tomorrows! What a great way to live with no regrets!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have spoken to many people who are very cautious about these times when we are urged to wear masks, regularly sanitize, and keep social distances because of the pandemic. Maybe they\u2019ve had a loved one that tested positive for the virus or even lost a loved one. I can understand their concern. But if&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15922,14601],"tags":[143,1210,18893,1769,18895,5628,38,40,159,18894,5121,18896,8136,18891,18892],"class_list":["post-13345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abundant-life","category-no-fear","tag-abundant-life","tag-blog","tag-careless-living","tag-christian","tag-do-not-disturb-sign","tag-family-history","tag-gratitude","tag-inspiration","tag-john-1010","tag-make-this-day-count","tag-no-fear","tag-the-dash","tag-tombstones","tag-wise-and-cautious","tag-without-fear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13347,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13345\/revisions\/13347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}