The Final Exam

Are you freaked yet?  I remember the feelings well.  It’s nerve-wracking.  One test is enough, but now you have to take a test for every class in just three days!!!  Anxiety!  Fear!!  Worry!!!

I'm not helping am I? J Fear reveals things about ourselves.  It lays plain where we find our center.  Our ‘center’ is where we look for confirmation: am I all right?  Am I good enough?  Do I belong?  John put it well in 1 John 5 “Fear has to do with judgment.”  The things that we are afraid of (outside of logical danger) are things that will expose us to judgment, evaluation. 

Many judgments come from how you fare on your exams.  Judgments from teachers, parents, relatives, siblings. 

But John says, “There is no fear in love.  Perfect love drives out fear.”  I encourage you to make that perfect love your center.  When that is your center you can face judgment differently.  Yes, you will be evaluated, hopefully fairly, in different situations, but your center, the full depth of who you are as a person will be safe.  I love Psalm 62.  I have held onto its words in many times of my life.  It says, “My soul finds rest in God alone.  My hope comes from Him.”  In another part, the writer seems to talk to his own soul and says, “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone.” 

When you begin to feel afraid as exams, or any tough things, approach, you will find yourself afraid of how you will be judged by the results.  Talk to your soul.  Say, “No.  Don’t go there.  Find rest, O my soul, in God alone.”  You are loved so perfectly, without reservation, by such a wonderful Abba Father.  Find your center there.

Oh, and study for the exams too.  That always helps J.