How to Live Your Life Without Fear
by We should stop living our present life carrying yesterday’s load and we should also stop living our life with too many worries about the uncertainties of the future.
On New Year’s Eve of 1916, Oswald Chambers, a well-known early twentieth century Scottish Protestant Christian minister, a teacher, a chaplain of YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) and author of the widely-read devotional book entitled My Utmost for His Highest, spoke to a crowd of British Commonwealth soldiers in Egypt whose lives had been overturned and battered by World War I. In his speech he said…
“At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present… Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ. Leave the irreparable past in His hands, and step out into the irresistible future with Him.”
Chambers was right in two things. First, we should stop living our present life carrying yesterday’s load. If pains of the past still bother your present life, remind yourself that your past is already history and you can no longer change it. We should not waste our energy on things that we can no longer change.
Another remarkable point that Chambers mentioned in his speech was to stop living our life with too many worries about the uncertainties of the future. Remind ourselves that no matter how well-planned our life, there will always be some space for blunders, crisis, setbacks, difficulties, etc. We plan our life because we are scared of our future. But life is not perfect and too much planning will not make it perfect.
If a calamity struck our lives in the past, it should not pull down our hopes for the future. Instead, our past tragedy should teach us to become stronger individuals and should prepare our inner selves as we face the uncertain future.
Liked it
-
-
-
-
-
-
Post Commentkate smedley
On May 17, 2009 at 5:02 am
It’s human nature to worry but what you say is true, we can’t change the past and once we have accepted it, hopefully we will be stronger. Good article.
Juancav
On May 17, 2009 at 9:51 am
Absolutly I agree ,these two concepts are the task to improve our lifes.
Chris Stonecipher
On May 17, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Remembering the past helps improve our future. I enjoyed your article.
Karen Gross
On May 17, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Great article – Oswald Chambers was a wise and godly man. I have found nourishment for the soul in his devotionals.
I have struggled with the weight of past sins and the anxiety over the future, and it has kept me from making wise choices for today. I am learning to let the past go, because God is merciful and those sins are forgiven. The future is in God’s hands, and He doesn’t give grace for worriers. In fact He commanded us to “fear not” and trust Him. He gives strength and courage to face only today’s trials.
Rajiv Sighamony
On May 17, 2009 at 10:16 pm
very inspiring.
Glassie
On May 18, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Fear is a strong thing that can take us over completey, once we have learned to surpass the fear we can begin to enjoy our lives. What you say is so right, the past cannot be changed – surely it should be used as a guide.