Bullied By Fear

Satan can be sneaky.

He can tip toe into our thoughts,

plant a tiny seed of worry,

water it with unhealthy emotions

and watch it grow into a creeping, thorny vine of fear.

That fear,

if well fed,

will then grow up the walls of our mind

and then take root into our heart

and tighten its reign of control over the 

garden of our life until its suffocated every other

living, pure and fruitful growth

that we had once living within us.

Meet anxiety.

Worry, fear, anxiety and depression are not our portion

from The Lord.

They are tactics from the enemy to control us

and to take our focus off of the Deliverer and Healer

of our body, mind and soul.

John 10:10 says,

"The thief does not come except to kill, and to steal

and to destroy.

I have come that they may have life, and that they 

may have it more abundantly."

One year ago, I walked through a season of crippling fear and anxiety.

I wanted to curl up somewhere away from it all and just fade away.

I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, and 

I had no hope.

That thorny vine of fear had almost completely killed all that 

I had grown in my garden of Life.

How could someone so passionate about The Lord become so 

debilitated by the enemy's fiery arrow?

I loss sight of who I am in Him and 

the authority and power that has been bestowed upon us.

Initially when the first sign of fear crept in,

I didn't turn from it.

I did not access the power that we have been so freely given.

I did not call on the name of Jesus.

I didn't rebuke the enemy and his attack on my mind.

I didn't surrender that area of weakness and the control

that I wanted to have over the situation immediately.

I could list one hundred things I didn't do...

But, in my time of walking through the valley of the shadow of death, 

He NEVER left me.

He was there every step of the way.

This season of my life was ONLY a shadow.

What is a shadow?!

It is darkness that forms when someone or something 

comes between a surface and The Light.

Once I chose to step out of that shadow and let His pure and radiant

Light shine in,

my crippling fear that had bullied me for months turned into

a holy righteous fear.

I went from wanting to let that shadow swallow me up to 

fearing that I would allow such lies to keep me from fulfilling

His great purpose for my life.

I didn't want to miss God!!!!

Anytime that nasty Satan would come and poke to see if he could 

plant a seed again, I would stop and I would pray,

"God, make my thoughts Your thoughts."

Then I would worship.

For me, I would play worship music and turn my heart and affection

completely towards Him.

I would think about the promises that have yet to be fulfilled

and thank Him for what He had promised me He would do.

Our greatest weapon is worship and praise!

Many times it was hard to do this because my emotions

weren't in alignment with my spirit.

But He is faithful and through this act of faith,

victory swept in and took hold of the root and ripped its 

shallow shoots out of my heart and left in its place

seeds of hope, peace and expectancy.

"For God does not give us the spirit of fear but of power and 

of love and of a sound mind."

2 Timothy 1:7

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff comfort me."

Psalms 23:$

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God

for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every

high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,

bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ..."

2 Corinthians 10:3-5