Defeating Fear

In talking with someone about her fears, I’m prompted to think about my own. I’m not afraid of mice, spiders, or someone breaking into my house. Sometimes I think about losing my husband or others dear to me. I would not welcome the destruction of fire. Most of my fears are incidental and short-lived, like the fear of saying the wrong thing and messing up a relationship, or losing my memory which would make life more challenging. 

Today’s reading comes from a book on everyday prayers. The author quotes a verse that deals with bigger fears:

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12:10–11)

Because Jesus died for me, and because I believe it and say so, and because I am not fearful of dying (maybe just the unknown process), I can affirm that while the shenanigans of Satan often take me by surprise, lack of fear conquers his accusations and efforts to turn me from faith. Most of the time. For if they do, my Jesus is determined to rescue me.

Yesterday, a strange thing happened. I don’t always blame the devil for all problems for not all of them are directly related to his lies, but if they divert me from trusting Jesus, he’s usually in there with some sort of accusation to provoke fear. This time it was unexplained pain.

We walked a lot on Sunday. Monday began okay but by lunch time my right heel tendons were swollen and so painful that I couldn’t think of anything else. Walking was difficult. Nothing eased it except putting my foot in a bucket of ice cold water, but even that didn’t help much.
How is this related to the devil’s schemes? Pain turns my thoughts to self, usually self-pity. This time it made me wonder if it would heal and go away. I know people who are in pain all their lives. How much would this stifle all my plans for even the next few days? Thinking of these things was not obsessive as the pain was so bad I couldn’t think of much else, but this morning, reading this verse and the prayer, reminded me of my real enemy and his tactics. The prayer author wrote:

Dear Lord Jesus, even as these words first thundered from heaven by a loud voice, so shout this good news into my heart today. What a focusing and freeing perspective on spiritual warfare. We live in the “now” of your salvation, power, kingdom, and authority, Lord Jesus—not the “not-so-long-from-now” but the now. You’re calling us to warfare, not war-fear.

He then quoted Martin Luther and the last line of the quote tells me how, in this situation, I can fight with a word of testimony — even alone in my house, I can sing the praises of Jesus, the Prince of Peace who has gloriously triumphed over the Prince of Darkness!

I might not have the ability to remove pain, but I can remember the One who defeated the Liar and did not shrink from death that I could be set free from its fear. I overcome because of Jesus, and fears get replaced with deep joy. Jesus empowers His people from all darkness in our hearts and all the fears that Satan tries to put there. Not only that, even though he prowls around looking for those he can devour, You have him on a short leash. 

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

PRAY: Lord Jesus, as the author of this book of prayers says, I can overcome, not by my muscle or even positive thinking, but by your mercy. Your Word says that the Holy Spirit can and will declare the gospel so loudly in my heart that it drowns out Satan’s constant efforts to keep me from trusting You. You are stronger and Your way of victory is greater than all his schemes. For that, I am humbly grateful. Amen!

Distracted by a non-issue

God graciously explains the struggles of last week. He reveals that I was concerned about a “what if?” instead of something that was actually happening. The distraction was: “If you do all that God says, the enemy will constantly attack and you will be in a joy-destroying battle until the end of your days. To avoid such misery, you need to choose what you will do.”

This reminds me of a friend who wanted to go to the mission field with the caveat that where she was sent didn’t have a lot of big insects and other crawling critters. She soon learned that loving others meant dropping personal preferences!

Yesterday’s sermon was about cultivating love. The application: 1. Cultivate community…reach out to lonely people, go bless someone else. 2. Practice generosity. It is always a greater joy to give than receive. Besides, generosity is an act of worship. 3. Contemplate God’s love and be driven to gratitude. (There is even an app to help that!) Remember why I am here.

This made me think about my anxiety and realize I was supposing and fearful rather than facing any issues in faith. God was not asking me to do something difficult or make a great sacrifice, nor was the devil trying to stop me from any direct command. Fighting an imaginary war is like a nightmare; not real but still feels as if it is — for a shot time.

Today’s readings describes the wisdom of God in making Jesus our Mediator. He is fully God and fully man, not distant from either, near to both in nature, possessing all of both except without sin.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15–16)

Jesus had a nature to be compassionate to us and victorious for us, to pity us and be patient to bear with us. If he had been only God, he would not have had an experimental sense of our misery; and if he had been only man, he could not have vanquished our enemies; had he been only God, he could not have died; and had he been only man, he could not have conquered death.

The justice of the law had been honored by man’s sufferings, but in Christ the holiness and equity of the law had been honored by man’s obedience. Charnock writes that the life of our Savior is a conformity to the precept, and his death is a conformity to the penalty. The transgression of the law was condemned in the flesh of the Redeemer, and the righteousness of the law was fulfilled in His person, and imputed to the believing sinner.

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3–4)

As he died for us, and rose again for us, so he lives for us. His work is finished and now I can rest in it and not worry about anything. Worry is pride in action. That is why God says…

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6–7)

Today’s devotional says that our anxieties refer to “distraction of mind” but God’s care signifies “fixation of mind.” This speaks to me and my ADHD, mild as it is but a target for the enemy! He uses it on me far too often. However, this verse helps…

You keep (her) in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because (she) trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)

PRAY: Jesus, this experience was something like a vivid bad dream, so vivid that it seems real after waking up and requires strong self-talk to quiet the emotions. The enemy hits my mind like that, producing vivid emotions. He hits my body too, but You are in my mind and have given me the will and a stronger desire to love and serve You. The cost of obedience cannot destroy any of my new life. It simply points to the reality that I belong to You and am Your child, and even my body is in Your total care and protection. Not my will but Thine be done.

Just knowing . . .

A few weeks ago, a book I was reading asked if I would trust God even if He did not answer my prayers for unsaved family members. The author seemed to suggest that their resistance could be stronger than God’s power to reach them. Before this, my confidence was not in my praying or in their receptivity, but in the promises of God concerning prayer and family, based on Scripture. I had been praying, “Not my will but thine be done” with the attitude that He was not willing that any should be lost. However, after this book, I felt estranged from God, as if He could no longer be trusted.

For the past couple of days of talking with Jesus and thinking about the nature of faith, I now see that the problem bothering me was not that God cannot or will not save people, but that the enemy does not want my confidence in God’s power. He saved a man (Saul who became Paul) who was determined to put Christians to death and turned him into an author of the NT. He saved me, a woman determined to run my own life and put me on my face before His Cross. Nothing is impossible for God. To suggest that He cannot do something is from the pit, not from the Holy Spirit.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Assurance is a characteristic of true faith in who God is and what He says. It is resting in God and His promises, not a hope-so longing that something will come to pass. True biblical assurance speaks of essence and reality — the real thing as opposed to mere appearance. It is based on God’s power, not my desires.

Faith, then, involves absolute certainty. Satan’s lies are designed to rob us of our certainty in God’s promises and make us doubt that He even cares. This is done to keep God’s people off our knees. He knows the power of prayer much better than we realize it!

In the Bible, the OT believers were told of a Messiah who would take away sin. They believed God, even though their understanding of Messiah was hazy. Their assurance of faith just knew that God would do what He said. This assurance of faith is the same in the NT.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8–9)

Satan would have me take my eyes off God and His promises and be disillusioned by what I can see. That is, if those I pray for show no interest in God, then he wants me to suppose that God is not at work. However:

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19)

He calls me to trust Him, not what I can see or cannot see. I think how He saved my husband — no evidence at all that He was working and suddenly, dear hubby was captivated by Jesus.

It is far better to believe God and to trust in His promises than the suggestions made by mere humans (who could be motivated by principalities and powers that are not flesh and blood) that God will not answer our prayers. I cannot live in doubt when He wants me to live in hope. Doubt puts my prayer life into slow mode whereas faith has me full of joy and excited to see what God will do next.

PRAY: Jesus, You have been answering prayer in so many surprising ways. The enemy does not want me to pray, and this latest assault has been devious. It came through a respected author, which made the devil’s tactics even more difficult to spot. Confessing my loss of trust in You helped, but also reading today’s devotional about the nature of faith was like a solid one-two punch in his face. Yes, I can trust You even if You do not reach out and save the people on my prayer list, but if that happens, it is not because You cannot do it. Nothing is impossible for You, not even melting the hardest heart. Keep my thoughts on Your power, Your mercy and love. Forgive and cleanse any doubt that people are lost because You cannot find them.

PONDER: Consider the power of God to do all that He wanted done through people to whom He granted faith, the kind of faith that trusts Him and therefore obeys whatever He asks. God is able. He makes promises concerning those for whom we pray. Trust Him to keep those promises and don’t add a “but if He doesn’t” doubt as if their sinful lives are just too far gone for Him to forgive and turn around.