A Fearless Perspective
I used to be addicted to fear. It’s truly the only thing my brain knew. Like a bad habit you keep going back to, even though you know it’s not bearing any fruit. Every circumstance and situation I faced, I viewed through the lens of this debilitating emotion. Everything about how to handle life scared me. I was afraid to fully rely on God, I was afraid to let anyone completely in, I was afraid to let my kids spend the night away from home, I was afraid to put complete trust in my marriage.
Living in fear is crippling, draining, and robs you from experiencing the joy your Savior died for you to have. It’s the polar opposite of God’s design for His children, and His plan for us to thrive.
Raising kids in a flourishing family was foreign to me and learning how to be a Godly wife seemed elusive at best, and impossible at worst. I desperately wanted to walk in victory over fear, doubt, unbelief, and panic, but I could never seem to shake the ever-present black cloud. I was stuck in a suffocating stronghold. A stronghold is something you can’t let go of, or a place you cannot leave. This precarious mainstay can be an addiction, a behavior, a habit, or a mindset.
Or it can be Jesus.
Two years into my journey with Jesus, I came across this verse: “The Lord is my stronghold.” {Psalm 18:2} What?! The Lord can be a Stronghold? Something in my spirit shifted when I read this truth. Freedom’s cry broke through years of heavy walls and the thought occurred to me, maybe I could switch bunkers?
I didn’t know fear was a choice. I thought if I felt suspicion and unease, then they were real. I was convinced everything I imagined in my darkest projection, would eventually come to pass. But the Lord showed me something incredible in His word that day. If I would loosen my grip on fear, I could change my perspective and make His presence my stronghold, rather than living in constant consternation. I could hide in him, rather than in the recesses of my unsanctified mind.
A mind crippled by fear is like an image taken from a crime scene investigation. Picture a squared off area with bright yellow tape around it, warning people not to go in, alarming its bystanders of the danger inside. Imagine living inside the forbidden area in your own mind, stuck in perpetual apprehension, with no way out, unable to solve the precarious case. Our enemy is the author of confusion, accusation, suspicion, and lies. With fear as a stronghold, the fictional scene will never change. Fear’s acronym is its only truth:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
So how does the neon tape come down? One piece at a time. Walking with Jesus is always a process, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If all the tape came down at once, I’d be tempted to say I did it on my own. To change strongholds is to move from one residence to the next, all in the same mind. You have to clear it out, clean it up, sweep it out, and get rid of all the harmful debris. The decaying rot of toxic thoughts may take years to change, but not only is the Lord faithful, He is also a Divine Carpenter and Master Builder. Jesus is in the rebuilding, renewing, revival, restoring, and renovating business!
And a renewed mind, is a beautiful mind.
No longer do I follow the rabbit trail of anxious thinking. I’ve learned how to take my thoughts captive, intentionally laying the negative ones down at my Fathers’ feet. Faith ushers in courage to propel me forward, rather than leaving me in the dust of self-doubt. Only grace can remove us from the enemy’s stronghold and bring us to our Fortified Shelter. One is filled with perfect peace, and the other is filled with destructive lies. We must choose which one we will hold on to. Breaking free is hard, but our joy is continually at stake.
By the grace of God, today I can read the words of Proverbs 31:25 and relate with our beloved courage-filled Proverbs woman, who is praised not only by her children, but by her husband as well. “Bold power and glorious majesty are wrapped around her as she laughs with joy over the days to come. “ {TPT} Fear of the future has no power over this woman. Instead, she laughs with joy thinking and dreaming of the days to come. That kind of freedom is what God longs for all of his children to experience. When we have complete trust in Him, we have complete joy in our souls. Joyfulness overflows into the world around us as we walk boldly, holding strongly onto Him, knowing He is carefully holding onto us.
