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Little_1 -> RE: Fearless or Fearful... (9/6/2008 9:35:06 AM)
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Yes - I have times when fear attacks my mind! I can be sitting reading or walking along the street and a fearful thought comes into my mind. The fearful thought(s) which come into my mind are usually tied up with what matters to me, e.g. loved ones and they usually involve, "what if this happens to -----------?" or "something could happen to ---------------!" Not nice thoughts! [X(] The following steps are what the Lord has taught me over the course of this past year regarding overcoming such. They are not pat answers - they are truth and they have helped me to cope where I would otherwise have crumbled:
1 Speak or meditate on Scripture relating to anxiety or fear
e.g. I may take a Scripture such as,"Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee," and personalise it, e.g. "God will keep me in perfect peace because I am going to keep my mind stayed upon Him." I repeat such whilst at the same time doing my utmost to ignore the 'feelings' I may be experiencing which say otherwise, i.e. thoughts and feelings which still try to overtake whatever Scripture I am repeating. "God's Word is alive and active......", also it, "will not return unto God void but will accomplish that to which He sends it," so if I still find it hard believing this Truth, I have to choose to trust by faith regardless of my feelings. This is not easy but it is a choice I have had to make often since I started to practice this. I remind myself that either I want to feel sorry for myself and wallow in my doubts and fears [sm=icon_smile_yikes.gif]or I want to grow strong spiritually and persevere...... [sm=angel.gif]
2 Pray for God to help focus on positive things
and not negative thinking and refuse to ponder the negative thoughts that come into my mind, i.e. I cast them down by doing what God's Word teaches, e.g. "whatsoever is good, whatsoever is noble, whatsoever is true - think on these things." I'm a "the glass is half empty" sort of person and God is really challenging me to "renew my mind" with His Word (((((((great challenge)))))). I'm learning lessons that God's teaching and His ways are so much better than my ways and His thoughts are so much higher than mine. I want to learn God's kind of thinking in the reality of life (and God's thinking has to do with love which casts out fear). Having the "mind of Christ" involves time in prayer and His Word......as well as putting it into practice in real-life situations.
It is not wrong to have fearful thoughts but we can allow ourselves to succumb to them which will lead us to sin if we dwell on them!
3 Praise God for His goodness
and if at the present time I cannot think of anything good happening in my life (i.e. at the moment of the fear attack), I try to think back to the good things He has done for me and not just me but my brethren (both recorded in the Bible and present brethren). Praise worked for Jehoshaphat when he was faced with a great advancing army. It confused Jehoshaphat's enemies so that they begun attacking themselves and had to flee! Thankfully today is no different although many of our enemies may be "in high places" - praise does the same in our own threatening and fearful circumstances...... and the spiritual wickedness in high places flee also - it confuses them [:D] Praising God is not always a "happy" time! There have been times when I have not felt like praising (quite the opposite) and it has been a "sacrifice of praise" but once again - feelings need to be ignored and at such times, we may need to make a decisive choice of obedience rather than 'feeling'. At such times, it encourages me to know that the outcome in the Heavenlies will be the same regardless of how we 'feel' however. ((((((Praise God)))))) [:D]
Re: the last question: if by this question you mean, "How do you manage to cope with fearful thoughts?" then I would say that I am learning to fear less when such happens by applying each of the above Biblical principles whenever I have negative thoughts and fears attacking my mind. Being honest, I am not perfected in this area (i.e. matured fully) and I still have to learn by practice. I cannot say I am fearless (much as I would like to); however, I do however believe it is definitely possible to be fearless when under trial, e.g. Stephen was fearless when he was crucified and even asked to be crucified upside down! Also, the big coward, Peter denied the Lord 3 times in the same day because he was fearful in mind yet went on to become a 'cornerstone' in the church faith! So yes - I do believe it is possible to be 'fearless' in fearful and stressful situations.
On a slightly different note but on the same theme, something else worth considering perhaps is getting adequate sleep/rest where possible because a tired mind is so much more vulnerable and likely to succumb during what I would term 'spiritual warfare'.
Exercise also - I don't practice what I preach with regard to exercise being honest (at least not as much as would be really beneficial) but health experts tell us that Exercise releases hormones into our blood-streams which have a positive, healthy effect and if the saying healthy body healthy mind is correct - then this is something I should consider seriously also. I can remember long ago hearing a sermon Re: Elijah and how it taught about diet and Exercise, i.e. the birds fed him well (diet); he had a period of resting (refreshment); and he had to walk some distance (exercises) and God used all this to help with his depression and negative thinking. Sorry if this is not very clearly explained but I heard the sermon about 20 years ago and would need to study the chapters which cover this period of depression and negative thinking which came after a great Spiritual victory.
P.S. sorry this is a long post - helpful I hope despite this.
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