Last night my daughter, Averie encountered someone or something lurking about in her room. I knew nothing was in her room. But she believed otherwise. I don’t know what she saw in those shadows, but to her it might as well have been Freddy Kruger himself.
I understand my daughter’s fears. From an early age, I worried constantly. My fears would be so intense at times, I would have stomach pains, sleepless nights, and dread for the day ahead. Fears would vary from something happening to my parents to someone breaking into our home to some sort of illness. Notice the vagueness in these fears, nothing specific.
About this time last year, I was running in our neighborhood. As clearly as one can hear God (not really an audible voice, more like an understanding that what I’m feeling isn’t coming from me), I heard him say “Melissa, you cannot go where I want to take you if fear is coming along.”
I thought, wow this is awesome. God is going to take away all my fears. Little did, I know that over the course of the next several months I would encounter more valid reasons to be afraid than ever before…enter acute pancreatitis in our life.
Because I had that phrase from God, I became more intentional and mindful about not having fear take up residence in my heart. This is really difficult because it requires choice after choice. Sometimes it seems easier to just let the fear in and worry for a few minutes. But, in times past I was finding myself letting my imagination run wild turning into a feature length movie.
When I did this, fear corroded my faith and began to distort my thinking. Have you ever wondered how rust works? It insidiously takes over destroying metal and actually breaking it off. That’s what fear does, in a sense, breaks our thinking.
Dr. Caroline Leaf states, “thoughts are real, physical things that occupy mental real estate.” When I dwell on my fears, I am thinking about the worst. Things that may never happen. Even if the worst were to happen, dwelling on them does absolutely nothing for me.
The opposite of fear is faith and truth. No better source for truth, than in God’s Word. The Bible has about 365 scriptures talking about fear. Its like God knew that everyday we would have to face some kind of fear. His word is life and shatters fears.
Here a few of my favorite scriptures dealing with fear:
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and strong mind.”
Philippians 4:6-7 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
I Peter 5:7 “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”
Last night, I told Averie she had choice. A choice, not to let fear in your heart. A choice to let faith and truth into your heart. With your fears, what will you choose?
Blessings to you,
Melissa