"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."
~2 Timothy 1:7
~2 Timothy 1:7
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." ~H. P. Lovecraft
I have been overcome with fear about one thing or another throughout different seasons of my life. I've been afraid about finances; I've been afraid about things dealing with my children, and for the last month I have been afraid about my long distance marriage.
Yep, I put it out there, I am a believer of the gospel of Jesus Christ and everything it says, but I have been afraid about many things in my life WHILE walking this spiritual journey with Christ.
If, as a believer, you have never experienced fear then I sincerely applaud you and ask that you pray for me in my shortcomings. You probably don't need to read any further. However, if you are reading this and can relate, then please continue on as I hope to encourage you as I am encouraging myself.
Fear is an emotion that debilitates us and robs us of our joy. Fear will make us anxious and even cause us to dread the dawning of a new day. Fear, in my mind, is the cause of hate because we hate the things we fear the most. Fear will cause us to react in ways that are irrational and darn near drives us crazy.
I am deathly afraid of Palmetto Bugs. They get inside your home and crawl around like they own the place. I am convinced that if there was ever an army of them in my home I would wave my flag in surrender and let them take over. They could move their whole family in and keep all of my belongings.
The other night my husband and I were on FaceTime, and while I was in the middle of blabbing away he interrupted me to tell me there was a Palmetto Bug crawling on my wall. I jumped out of bed and yelled for Tyler, my middle child, to bring me the Raid. Haha...yes, I keep Raid in the house for the warm months as this is the time of the year that these ugly bugs are mostly active. I was in the middle of a deep conversation with my love when the announcement of this bug on my wall shifted my whole focus to killing this pest. Long story short, it took me a whole 30 minutes to find where it went after I sprayed it with the Raid, which meant that by the time that was accomplished my husband and I were both sleepy and ready for bed.
See, I had an irrational fear of something that, honestly, is probably more afraid of me than I am of it (although I can't imagine this being true).
Fear makes us irrational, and when we think irrationally we have no peace. I'll go even further to say that when our fear involves other people, our craziness drives them crazy as well.
Lately, I have allowed the enemy to remind me of the pain of my past relationships, and I transferred all of those fears onto my husband. I have taken every single thing that happened to me in my past and dumped them all in his lap for him to carry instead of trusting that he is the man God sent to love me and show me that I am so worthy of this kind of love. The fears were unwarranted, as he does things to constantly show me that he is worthy of my trust. He does the little things that even I don't always think to do to let me know he loves me and is different from anyone I've ever experienced in my life. But, because I have allowed him to melt the walls of ice I had built around my heart so no one could get in, I feel really vulnerable and at risk for another heartbreak. As a result of this I was driving myself crazy. With every passing thought, I couldn't control myself, and it wasn't too long before I started voicing these fears to him and driving him crazy as well.
Then, a few days ago, I woke up and God told me it was time to stop. He reminded me that fear is of the enemy, and that as His child I don't have to fear anything that comes against me. He assured me that although many weapons will form against me, those weapons will never be able to accomplish their missions against me, and the voice of the enemy speaking lies to my mind will be silenced (Isaiah 54:17). He recalled to my mind that He has already given me the resources I need.
When fear tries to grip your mind so tightly that you physically cannot breathe, remember that the Word of God is your defense. The only way to know the Word of God is to hear the Word of God. Remember that faith comes by hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:17). In this context, I mean hearing the Word of God flowing from your own lips, declaring things that God has said concerning you and the things that reveal His heart for you.
One of my favorite passages of scriptures is Psalm 91. You'd never be able to know this because I couldn't recite it a few weeks ago when one of my small groups decided to learn it for a study we were doing. The Word of God is our weapon against the crafty vices of the devil. When we speak the Word of God from our mouths and believe it with such conviction in our hearts, fear cannot continue to reside within us.
When fear tries to take control of your peace, remember that your peace was won when Christ gave His life for us (Isaiah 53:5). Every single fear that we would ever face was overcome through the victory Christ gave us when He defied death and made us absolutely free from sin's grip on us. We don't have to allow ourselves to give fear control over our lives. We have overwhelming victory over all things, including fear, in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37). Don't ever forget, especially in the midst of uncertainty and doubt, that God gives us peace that is beyond understanding in the moments that it seems everything is crashing down around us (Philippians 4:7).
When fear tries to rob you of your joy, don't forget the power of prayer. Pray to God, confessing your fears to Him. Tell God what you are afraid of and why you are afraid of those things. Ask Him to help you to fight against those fears (Philippians 4:6). Dear ones, remember that the things we fight against as believers are not merely things that are caused by humans but by the devil himself (Ephesians 6:12). Fear is not only an emotion but also a mindset. That's how the devil fights us most, in our minds. If he can defeat us in our minds then we are surely defeated in every area of our lives.
The kids and I have a prayer room in our home, our War Room, if you will. I have been in our War Room constantly over the past few days fighting against these fears that were forming roots so deep in my soul until the fear became a physical pain within. I read scriptures, wrote out prayers and hung them on the wall, and shed some huge and sorrowful tears. I knew that I could not let this fear take me under, dragging me to a place so dark that I literally couldn't see anything other than that darkness.
Let me put a pause in this thought to interject another. As I said earlier, I was placing all of the burdens of past hurts onto my husband. I will always share with young women why God urges us to keep our bodies pure and untouched until the day we get married, should that be what He has for us. When we share our bodies with men who were never meant to experience them it's like giving our souls to them. Giving ourselves to another in that way is virtually giving them control over our entire being. When one relationship doesn't work out, we continue the same cycle over and over until we almost have nothing else to give. By the time God sends us a mate our hearts are so hardened and we have no trust to give to the one who was meant to be our husband. This leaves them fighting a war against our past, trying to get us to see their love and devotion to us. That's not very fair, is it?
As, I was saying, God gave us prayer as a weapon to fight against the thoughts the devil plants in our minds. Be specific in your prayers to God about your fears and tell Him exactly what you need from Him.
Before this morning, I had only been asking God to take away my fears, but this morning I did something different. This morning I asked God to show me my husbands heart for me, through tears, as I was driving to work. Shortly after I said "Amen" I received a text from an unknown number. Actually, it read "Maybe Amy". When I opened the text it was from a woman named Amy who met my husband when she and her husband Judd were in the Dominican Republic. They were guest at the company my husbands works for. After talking with them he learned that they live in South Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina to be exact. She told me that my husband asked them to deliver a letter to me, if they would. They agreed. When I received Amy's text I was driving, so I called her and we made plans for her to bring the letter to my job.
When Amy brought the letter to my job this morning she said she felt a strong urge to text me this morning so she could deliver it to me. When she walked up to me she hugged me and embraced me for a while. I told her that I really needed that hug, and she told me she could tell from our phone conversation. She will never be able to understand what this meant to me. It meant that God really does care about me, and while He sometimes takes a while to answer my prayers, He knew that I needed Him to answer this prayer quickly. God showed me that my husband's heart and intentions towards me are pure and that I can trust in Him to make sure my husband knows the gift he received when God gave him permission to have me. My heart is so grateful to my love for thinking of me in this way, to Amy for allowing God to use her, and mostly to my Father in heaven who knew exactly what I needed and His timing was perfect.
Even when you are having doubts about things in your life, I ask you to trust God. While many of the fears you have may never become reality, sometimes they do. Remember, that even when fears become realities God will NEVER leave you to walk alone through those moments (Deuteronomy 31:6).
As hard as this next bit of advice is, I am giving it anyway. When fear or any trial come against you, try to remain joyful always (Philippians 4:4) . Remember that God's joy is what gives us strength (Nehemiah 8:10b). See, I can't tell you that I won't still have some fears while my husband and I are waiting for the day that we don't have to say goodbye after a FaceTime conversation, but I can tell you that I now have this vision of God holding me close to his heart in these moments just as a parent cradles their child to shield them from things that their children fear. That vision makes my heart joyful knowing that no matter what fears I face in life, God is there to shield me from being broken beyond His ability to repair me if those fears come true.
Lastly, be careful that you don't speak life into those fears. Remember that there is some serious power in the words that we speak from our mouths. In fact, the words we speak are so powerful that we can either speak life or death into a situation we may be facing (Proverbs 18:21).
I won't make any promises that I will get over my fear of Palmetto Bugs anytime soon, ha! Seriously, though, in every area of my life I will fight hard not to let fear be the factor that keeps me from receiving my blessings. I will pray and meditate on the Word of God. When I am afraid, I will confess this weakness to God, knowing that His power is made perfect in my weakness. My weaknesses, then, actually give me the courage to be strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Believe it or not, yours do, too!!!
I have been overcome with fear about one thing or another throughout different seasons of my life. I've been afraid about finances; I've been afraid about things dealing with my children, and for the last month I have been afraid about my long distance marriage.
Yep, I put it out there, I am a believer of the gospel of Jesus Christ and everything it says, but I have been afraid about many things in my life WHILE walking this spiritual journey with Christ.
If, as a believer, you have never experienced fear then I sincerely applaud you and ask that you pray for me in my shortcomings. You probably don't need to read any further. However, if you are reading this and can relate, then please continue on as I hope to encourage you as I am encouraging myself.
Fear is an emotion that debilitates us and robs us of our joy. Fear will make us anxious and even cause us to dread the dawning of a new day. Fear, in my mind, is the cause of hate because we hate the things we fear the most. Fear will cause us to react in ways that are irrational and darn near drives us crazy.
I am deathly afraid of Palmetto Bugs. They get inside your home and crawl around like they own the place. I am convinced that if there was ever an army of them in my home I would wave my flag in surrender and let them take over. They could move their whole family in and keep all of my belongings.
The other night my husband and I were on FaceTime, and while I was in the middle of blabbing away he interrupted me to tell me there was a Palmetto Bug crawling on my wall. I jumped out of bed and yelled for Tyler, my middle child, to bring me the Raid. Haha...yes, I keep Raid in the house for the warm months as this is the time of the year that these ugly bugs are mostly active. I was in the middle of a deep conversation with my love when the announcement of this bug on my wall shifted my whole focus to killing this pest. Long story short, it took me a whole 30 minutes to find where it went after I sprayed it with the Raid, which meant that by the time that was accomplished my husband and I were both sleepy and ready for bed.
See, I had an irrational fear of something that, honestly, is probably more afraid of me than I am of it (although I can't imagine this being true).
Fear makes us irrational, and when we think irrationally we have no peace. I'll go even further to say that when our fear involves other people, our craziness drives them crazy as well.
Lately, I have allowed the enemy to remind me of the pain of my past relationships, and I transferred all of those fears onto my husband. I have taken every single thing that happened to me in my past and dumped them all in his lap for him to carry instead of trusting that he is the man God sent to love me and show me that I am so worthy of this kind of love. The fears were unwarranted, as he does things to constantly show me that he is worthy of my trust. He does the little things that even I don't always think to do to let me know he loves me and is different from anyone I've ever experienced in my life. But, because I have allowed him to melt the walls of ice I had built around my heart so no one could get in, I feel really vulnerable and at risk for another heartbreak. As a result of this I was driving myself crazy. With every passing thought, I couldn't control myself, and it wasn't too long before I started voicing these fears to him and driving him crazy as well.
Then, a few days ago, I woke up and God told me it was time to stop. He reminded me that fear is of the enemy, and that as His child I don't have to fear anything that comes against me. He assured me that although many weapons will form against me, those weapons will never be able to accomplish their missions against me, and the voice of the enemy speaking lies to my mind will be silenced (Isaiah 54:17). He recalled to my mind that He has already given me the resources I need.
When fear tries to grip your mind so tightly that you physically cannot breathe, remember that the Word of God is your defense. The only way to know the Word of God is to hear the Word of God. Remember that faith comes by hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:17). In this context, I mean hearing the Word of God flowing from your own lips, declaring things that God has said concerning you and the things that reveal His heart for you.
One of my favorite passages of scriptures is Psalm 91. You'd never be able to know this because I couldn't recite it a few weeks ago when one of my small groups decided to learn it for a study we were doing. The Word of God is our weapon against the crafty vices of the devil. When we speak the Word of God from our mouths and believe it with such conviction in our hearts, fear cannot continue to reside within us.
When fear tries to take control of your peace, remember that your peace was won when Christ gave His life for us (Isaiah 53:5). Every single fear that we would ever face was overcome through the victory Christ gave us when He defied death and made us absolutely free from sin's grip on us. We don't have to allow ourselves to give fear control over our lives. We have overwhelming victory over all things, including fear, in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37). Don't ever forget, especially in the midst of uncertainty and doubt, that God gives us peace that is beyond understanding in the moments that it seems everything is crashing down around us (Philippians 4:7).
When fear tries to rob you of your joy, don't forget the power of prayer. Pray to God, confessing your fears to Him. Tell God what you are afraid of and why you are afraid of those things. Ask Him to help you to fight against those fears (Philippians 4:6). Dear ones, remember that the things we fight against as believers are not merely things that are caused by humans but by the devil himself (Ephesians 6:12). Fear is not only an emotion but also a mindset. That's how the devil fights us most, in our minds. If he can defeat us in our minds then we are surely defeated in every area of our lives.
The kids and I have a prayer room in our home, our War Room, if you will. I have been in our War Room constantly over the past few days fighting against these fears that were forming roots so deep in my soul until the fear became a physical pain within. I read scriptures, wrote out prayers and hung them on the wall, and shed some huge and sorrowful tears. I knew that I could not let this fear take me under, dragging me to a place so dark that I literally couldn't see anything other than that darkness.
Let me put a pause in this thought to interject another. As I said earlier, I was placing all of the burdens of past hurts onto my husband. I will always share with young women why God urges us to keep our bodies pure and untouched until the day we get married, should that be what He has for us. When we share our bodies with men who were never meant to experience them it's like giving our souls to them. Giving ourselves to another in that way is virtually giving them control over our entire being. When one relationship doesn't work out, we continue the same cycle over and over until we almost have nothing else to give. By the time God sends us a mate our hearts are so hardened and we have no trust to give to the one who was meant to be our husband. This leaves them fighting a war against our past, trying to get us to see their love and devotion to us. That's not very fair, is it?
As, I was saying, God gave us prayer as a weapon to fight against the thoughts the devil plants in our minds. Be specific in your prayers to God about your fears and tell Him exactly what you need from Him.
Before this morning, I had only been asking God to take away my fears, but this morning I did something different. This morning I asked God to show me my husbands heart for me, through tears, as I was driving to work. Shortly after I said "Amen" I received a text from an unknown number. Actually, it read "Maybe Amy". When I opened the text it was from a woman named Amy who met my husband when she and her husband Judd were in the Dominican Republic. They were guest at the company my husbands works for. After talking with them he learned that they live in South Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina to be exact. She told me that my husband asked them to deliver a letter to me, if they would. They agreed. When I received Amy's text I was driving, so I called her and we made plans for her to bring the letter to my job.
When Amy brought the letter to my job this morning she said she felt a strong urge to text me this morning so she could deliver it to me. When she walked up to me she hugged me and embraced me for a while. I told her that I really needed that hug, and she told me she could tell from our phone conversation. She will never be able to understand what this meant to me. It meant that God really does care about me, and while He sometimes takes a while to answer my prayers, He knew that I needed Him to answer this prayer quickly. God showed me that my husband's heart and intentions towards me are pure and that I can trust in Him to make sure my husband knows the gift he received when God gave him permission to have me. My heart is so grateful to my love for thinking of me in this way, to Amy for allowing God to use her, and mostly to my Father in heaven who knew exactly what I needed and His timing was perfect.
Even when you are having doubts about things in your life, I ask you to trust God. While many of the fears you have may never become reality, sometimes they do. Remember, that even when fears become realities God will NEVER leave you to walk alone through those moments (Deuteronomy 31:6).
As hard as this next bit of advice is, I am giving it anyway. When fear or any trial come against you, try to remain joyful always (Philippians 4:4) . Remember that God's joy is what gives us strength (Nehemiah 8:10b). See, I can't tell you that I won't still have some fears while my husband and I are waiting for the day that we don't have to say goodbye after a FaceTime conversation, but I can tell you that I now have this vision of God holding me close to his heart in these moments just as a parent cradles their child to shield them from things that their children fear. That vision makes my heart joyful knowing that no matter what fears I face in life, God is there to shield me from being broken beyond His ability to repair me if those fears come true.
Lastly, be careful that you don't speak life into those fears. Remember that there is some serious power in the words that we speak from our mouths. In fact, the words we speak are so powerful that we can either speak life or death into a situation we may be facing (Proverbs 18:21).
I won't make any promises that I will get over my fear of Palmetto Bugs anytime soon, ha! Seriously, though, in every area of my life I will fight hard not to let fear be the factor that keeps me from receiving my blessings. I will pray and meditate on the Word of God. When I am afraid, I will confess this weakness to God, knowing that His power is made perfect in my weakness. My weaknesses, then, actually give me the courage to be strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Believe it or not, yours do, too!!!