"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5,6
Do you know these verses by heart?
I memorized them as a new believer and I love them. Since I came to know Christ these verses have spoken to me. It has been my desire and intention to have that kind of life with God; the kind where I trust Him with all of my heart and He leads me wherever He wants me to go.
There is one thing that has tried to come between me and God more than any other, and that is fear.
I desire trust, and yet fear has a way of creeping in uninvited.
I'm mad at fear. Fear has lied to me, stolen from me and at times even paralyzed me.
I can't remember a time when fear wasn't there breathing down my neck, looking over my shoulder, trying to mess with the story of my life being written down on God's pages. The taunting, mocking voice of fear is like the one Eve heard in the garden when she heard the serpent say, "Did God really say?" Fear challenges my faith, my values, and even tries to use scripture against me.
Of course, the source of all evil is satan, and satan uses many tactics to lock God's people up and keep us from moving forward into the life and kingdom work that God has planned for us to do.
The Bible says that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which He prepared in advance for us to do.
From the time I was a young child, fear has been picking on me. Fear is a bully! It tries to intimidate God's people all the time. Fear nags us with worry; sometimes just a nagging "what if?" hanging over our heads. The scripture says that fear brings torment and I know that to be true.
When I was a child, I was tormented by nightmares that shook me. Just to show how ridiculous fear can be, I still remember one of the worst reoccurring nightmares I ever had was about the characters in Sesame Street! What is so scary about Big Bird? I don't know! I loved Big Bird during the day, but in the middle of the night he would crash through my bedroom wall and scare me crazy! It's not so much the subject of the dream that makes a nightmare so scary. It is the fear itself that is so frightening.
As I got older, I was tormented by a variety of fears. Can you relate to any of these?
Fear of failure
Fear of rejection
Fear of abandonment
Fear of disapproval
Fear of disappointment
Fear of tragedy
Fear of the future
Fear of the unknown
Fear of death
Fear of crowds
Fear of being alone
There is a whole catalog of phobias that people deal with; fear of spiders, fear of flying, fear of small spaces, fear of wide open spaces.....
Those are just some of the ways fear manifests its ugly self in the lives of women. Christian women. Women who were bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Women who belong to the resurrected Lord. Christian women are being harassed by fear and I'm sick of it.
Like I said, I'm mad at fear. I want you to be mad at fear too!
What has fear ever done for you? Has it been a good friend, companion? Has it brought you closer to God, made your relationships deeper?
I can't count the number of times I've sat across the table from a woman and heard her say that she has "trust issues." Yeah? Yeah. It's hard to trust women. It's hard to trust men. It's hard to trust God. I've heard this - and lived it myself...except I've decided that I've had enough of my "trust issues" because really, they are "FEAR issues" and I'm mad at fear.
Realizing that fear is a problem is the first step. I think that fear has been such a subtle and sneaky force in our lives that sometimes we are just used to it. We tell ourselves that it's just how we are; we actually take fear on as part of our identity! Part of who we are! We might say, "Oh, that's just how I am, I'm shy. I don't think I could ever do that, I don't like risky things. I can't really step out and do that, I have "trust issues."
We don't even know that we are missing out on friendships, great adventures with God, and being hindered greatly in leading others to Christ.
We don't know how bound up we are unless the Holy Spirit shows us. I thank God He does want to show us!
Thankfully, there are many, many passages of scripture that deal with the issue of fear. God knows there are frightening things to face in this world. He knows we need help and He is faithful to give us many encouraging words on the subject.
We'll take a look at some of this encouragement tomorrow. See you then!
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