Posted in Blogger Friend School

Nancy has the latest assignment up on her blog.  Here is the assignment for the week:

This week’s assignment is about fear. I’ve heard, though I don’t know for fact, that Jesus says in the Bible 365 times, “Do not fear”. I’m not going to sit down and count to find out if it’s that many times or not. It did leave me thinking about my own fears and what fears other people have. If we will be honest, there is something which each of us fears losing so much that it strains the limits of our faith to contemplate trusting it to God. Our life is perhaps the least of these, for surely there are worse fates than dying. Perhaps it is losing our wife, husband or child. Perhaps it is losing our freedom, our health or our mind. Tell your fear and how you handle it when you don’t let God take it for you.

Let me just start by confessing that I allowed fear to control me for way too many years.  This is a subject that is very close to my heart as I feel that I am walking in victory in this area right now.  The Lord has really taken me on a journey to finding freedom from fear over the last couple of years.  I never even realized how much I had allowed fear to control me. 

It's funny to get the opportunity now to talk about it all.  I have suffered from many fears in my life.  But there are 2 that really dominated the scene.  The first was fear of not having control (Yes Nancy, you're not the only one).  The other was the fear of not being heard or being misunderstood. 

Let's just say I grew up in a home that was slightly more dysfunctional that the average persons.  Although God has redeemed that area of my life, I was still suffering from the consequences of being in a totally out of control home.  The second fear comes from the same place as the first one.  I always thought that as long as I could control everything and everyone around me then I would never have to deal with the feelings I had when I was growing up and couldn't have any control of what was going on around me.  Of course this is an impossible task and will only leave you dealing with feelings of shame and defeat (And that's a topic for another day).

So I had to come to a place where I trusted that God was going to take care of me.  That I didn't need to worry about everything being just right.  That I didn't need to defend myself.  That I didn't need to explain myself.  You see it all comes down to the fact that when we are trying to do things ourself,  we are giving fear an open door to come right on in and take up residence.  Because of course if we are doing things ourself then we are eventually bound to fail.  And maybe that's where the real fear lies.  I don't know.  Of course now and then these fears try to find their way back into my life.  And sometimes I even let them visit for a while.  But I do recognize them a whole lot quicker now.  And usually they don't make it past the front door. 

I have learned to replace the fear with the truths that God has given me about myself. 

Deuteronomy 31:6  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you.

2 Corinthians 10:5  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

*Kristie*