Fear

Fear - a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

Fear is something that plagues each of us in one way or another every day. In this world, there are so many things to be scared of, more "what-ifs" than your mind can even bear to imagine. It's so easy to get bogged down in being afraid and living in that fear on a daily basis. We tend to get distracted from the "abundant" life God has planned for us and get stuck in the prison of fear instead. 

Sometimes I forget how real spiritual warfare is, until I get so caught up in fear that I am no longer focused on the things of God. In that moment, I realize that I have fallen right into that trap that I have been so desperately trying to avoid. Warfare is defined as "armed conflict between two massed enemies". And that is exactly what is going on. It is a war between God and Satan for our mind. I believe that fear is Satan's tool, his most powerful weapon against us. He uses it to distract us from what God would want us to do, from what we should be doing, from the true desires of our hearts. Satan uses fear to tear us down and to make us question what we already know to be true. He wants fear to DESTROY us, plain and simple. He wants us to get our minds off of the freedom and peace that comes from being in Christ, so that we are ineffective in the Kingdom of God. Once we turn our heads from the place of trusting God and keeping our minds focused on Him, we are in the devil's playground.

Thankfully, war isn't just one-sided. Yes, Satan does attack us with fear and doubt, but that doesn't mean that we can't fight back. We have the ability to fight back and WIN with God on our side. Fear is talked about all throughout the Bible and God gives us strategies and tactics on how to fight in this "war". That is the awesome thing about our God. He has lived on this Earth and He understands the struggles that we will have. Our God won't leave us empty-handed and He won't forsake us in this battle. He gives us just what we need to make it through each day unscathed. We can claim victory one battle at a time while leaving the ultimate victory up to Him. I have to constantly remind myself that Jesus has already WON the war. He has overcome everything that I could possibly be afraid of. So what's the point of being scared? Why am I fearful if I trust my God to rescue me like He has proven that He will do over and over again? 

For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of POWER, LOVE, and SELF-CONTROL. 

God promised us that in this world we will have trouble; there is no doubt about that. He also promised that He would be with us, fighting each and every struggle right alongside us, always. 

"You keep him in PERFECT PEACE whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." -Isaiah 26:3