“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7). NKJ
Part Two of Three
Oftentimes we are bewildered and beleaguered soldiers. Sometimes we fall. Sometimes we despair. Always we need to fight for and with our community. We may think that we should muster up some kind of special faith and we fall short. We forget that our God is with us all the time. He doesn’t ask for grandiose actions, He simply wants us to call on Him and trust that He will be with us. This includes big or little situations.
God answers our calls instantly. Even if we don’t do it right because we don’t know what is right. He promises us in His Word that when we call He will answer. He responds to our heroic efforts of faith.
But what if He doesn’t answer instantly? Many of us live with constant “what ifs” that never happen, and with some that do happen. We are helpless in the face of fear. The fight against panic is a constant battle. We struggle to keep a sound mind as we face the giants in our lives.
Still, a war rages around us and would hinder the good things in store for us. Here we are, soldiers inducted to engage and our weapons are as unseen as the war we fight. We must remember to put on our spiritual armor.
As we have learned, part of that armor is the Helmet of Salvation. Checking first to be sure that our commander is Jesus, we then check our thought life. The Bible tells us, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ …” (II Corinthians 10:4,5).
Figuring out which thoughts to keep and reject must be one of the most difficult things we do, and it is constant. Our minds are always going to and fro with something.
Always filling my mind with scripture verses every minute has been imperative or I would be dwelling on emotional traumas or traumas happening in my external world.
One of those places I read was Exodus, chapter 14. Moses was leading the Israelites away from Egypt and this is where they came up against the Red Sea. By this time, the Egyptians were coming after them. There was no place for them to go. In my crisis, I thought there was no place for me to go, either. I read further. I saw that there would be death for them either way. The sea roared on one side and a vengeful king with his soldiers out to kill them on the other side. God spoke directly to their immediate problem and told them not to fear, but to stand still and see what He would do to deliver them. He did a big thing! He parted the sea! What? That’s impossible! He drowned the Egyptians behind them. He completely saved them! What would He do for me when I came up against the seas and soldiers in my life?
I faced issues at home that meant I needed power by the hour. I sensed the presence of those unseen spiritual beings intent on my destruction and fear of them put me into a POW camp for years. Waves and waves of fear hit me. At times I felt nearly incapable of functioning, so great was the fear. I constantly read the Bible and prayed. I did all I knew to do to abide in Christ. I really had to learn to believe God no matter how I felt and what was happening around me. Sometimes I thought I would slip over the edge into insanity, so unbearable were the panic attacks.
Spiritual darkness surrounded me and it felt like something pressed on me from all sides and I imagined I could hear raucous laughter. I determined to go through by trusting God. Through much Bible reading, I had assurance that God would not leave me. He would save and protect my children, even teach them and prosper them, and that His words would not depart from their mouths forever. I found out that our God is trustworthy! LJR Photo: Linda Jo Reed is the author of “Upheld In The Battle”. Visit her at Barnes and Noble in the Spokane Valley at a book signing on March 1. She can be contacted at http://lindajoreed.com. Like her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindaJoReed