What Do Women Fear?Sample

Day One: Afraid of Texting

Luke 12:12: “For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said.” Listen, I know Luke 12 wasn’t written about text message awkwardness. But, I’m just telling you that texting is sometimes stressful to me. Occasionally, I’ll get a text or an Instagram message or something on Facebook and I’ll hold my breath before I even open it up to read it.

What are they going to ask me? How should I respond? Did I just say the wrong thing? Why were those little typing bubbles there a second ago and now they’re gone?

I can get really hung up on what to say, what not to say, what I should have said and when I should have texted a rosy cheeked smiley emoji instead of the winky kiss emoji (just kidding. I would never send a winky kiss emoji). And here in Luke, we see Jesus comforting His disciples as they are about to preach the good news of the gospel to a people who want them dead.

The stakes were (much [much]) higher for them than the stakes are for me and my mildly troubling texts.

But whatever the time period and whatever the trouble, it’s pretty incredible that we have the Holy Spirit willing to help us know what to speak into situations that could leave us speechless.

If we are walking with the Lord, if we are His children, if we are willing to acknowledge Jesus before the hurting, the hating, the doubting, and the texting around us, we don’t have to worry.

God will provide the opportunities for us to share His love when we ask for them. And when we seek to love the people texting us and calling us and even killing us, as was true for those in Luke, the Holy Spirit will help us know what to say then, too. Because, we are Christ’s ambassadors. More than that, we are His treasure. He will guide us to respond to life’s messages with love. And He is looking at us with the heart eyes emoji right this minute.

-- Do you worry about social interactions -- what you say, what to text, if and how and when things might get uncomfortable? Jesus doesn’t promise us a life free of conflict and discomfort. He says the opposite, actually. But, the thing is, He’s WITH us. He is death-defyingly FOR us. When we are in Him and know Him, we can text and talk confidently, knowing that the Holy Spirit will guide us to speak truth and life to the people around us. And when we fail, we can remember, we have been forgiven!

Additional Reading: John 16:33; Luke 12:8-12