F…E…A…R…
False…Evidence….Appearing….Real….
This past Saturday I had a situation crop up in my life during a conversation with a friend in my car as I was driving. During the conversation I became overwhelmed with fear. At first, thoughts of my past did grip me - a circumstance where I was exited out of a moving vehicle and had to walk home - did come back to my mind. However, I was completely safe and the physical reaction that rose up in me didn’t match the conversation, other than I was driving on the freeway at the time with my friend as a passenger.
Slowly, an old habit of anxiety came over me. In an attempt to thwart its existence and calm myself I became defensive - deflecting the conversation - in an attempt to make it stop. It didn’t work. I was unable to communicate what was happening and it just kept getting worse and worse.
The anxiety rose and it took a lot to pull into my destination. My breathing was all out-of-whack - I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I had to exit the car for a minute or two and take some deep breaths and separate myself and pray it off of me.
I was mad! None of it was real…I was perfectly safe. My friend had no idea what was happening…I was embarrassed…
I stood on the street outside the car and the Holy Spirit reminded me:
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15
It went away.
I do believe that fear is the enemy’s #1 weapon in his arsenal against believers. If he can get us to fear, then he can help us fall victim to worry and other parts of sin… the “what ifs” then can plague our lives, almost becoming a paralyzing force (at least for me).
Yet fear is not tangible. We THINK something may happen and so we are fearful or a past situation or circumstance makes us think we are there again (as in the car situation with me on Saturday.)
Some would say I suffered a trauma and, thus, suffer from a sort of PTSD from past. Maybe so yet I only know that I can be transformed by the renewing of my mind according to the Word.
How on earth to we drive fear from us? 1 John 4 says that perfect love is what casts it out.
What is love?
He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:8
False…Evidence….Appearing….Real….
This past Saturday I had a situation crop up in my life during a conversation with a friend in my car as I was driving. During the conversation I became overwhelmed with fear. At first, thoughts of my past did grip me - a circumstance where I was exited out of a moving vehicle and had to walk home - did come back to my mind. However, I was completely safe and the physical reaction that rose up in me didn’t match the conversation, other than I was driving on the freeway at the time with my friend as a passenger.
Slowly, an old habit of anxiety came over me. In an attempt to thwart its existence and calm myself I became defensive - deflecting the conversation - in an attempt to make it stop. It didn’t work. I was unable to communicate what was happening and it just kept getting worse and worse.
The anxiety rose and it took a lot to pull into my destination. My breathing was all out-of-whack - I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I had to exit the car for a minute or two and take some deep breaths and separate myself and pray it off of me.
I was mad! None of it was real…I was perfectly safe. My friend had no idea what was happening…I was embarrassed…
I stood on the street outside the car and the Holy Spirit reminded me:
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15
It went away.
I do believe that fear is the enemy’s #1 weapon in his arsenal against believers. If he can get us to fear, then he can help us fall victim to worry and other parts of sin… the “what ifs” then can plague our lives, almost becoming a paralyzing force (at least for me).
Yet fear is not tangible. We THINK something may happen and so we are fearful or a past situation or circumstance makes us think we are there again (as in the car situation with me on Saturday.)
Some would say I suffered a trauma and, thus, suffer from a sort of PTSD from past. Maybe so yet I only know that I can be transformed by the renewing of my mind according to the Word.
How on earth to we drive fear from us? 1 John 4 says that perfect love is what casts it out.
What is love?
He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:8
