overcoming fear

A very nice friend asked me today about overcoming fear & I felt encouraged that I should write about this today 🙂

In relation to fear, there are lots of things that could trouble us:  fear of failure, fear of getting hurt, fear of something from the past, fear of falling down, fear of the future, fear of relationships, . . . . . .   The Greeks used the term phobia and attached all kinds of things to this word (agrophobia, necrophobia & my personal favorite, snake-o-phobia).

So here are some strategies that could be helpful to overcoming fear:

• do it scared – I stole this outright from Joyce Meyer;  she’s uber cool!
• face the fear a little bit at a time rather than to look at the whole thing
• consider that the devil uses fear to control us & that God created us from the very beginning to have authority, dominion & power
• catch fear in the early stage so it doesn’t go stupid
• choose to trust God & reject fear – yes to trust and no to fear
• keep trying – failing is more like practice if we take out the fear ingredient
• remember that 1 John says that perfect love casts out fear!

Feel free to add your own advice & pass this along to your fam & friends! 😀

a fearless tribute to my husband

Have you ever been intimidated, afriad, overwhelmed, in over your head and just simply disheartened?  Sometimes I go through seasons, situations and struggles that could feel really overpowering – dying babies with Saving Moses, evil people masquerading as helpful, discouraging words from close friends and more.  I was recently in some of this kind of quagmire and my husband & I were talking about a few things related to these struggles when I remembered something cool from the New Zealand national Rugby team:  the Haka

I showed my husband a video of the Haka & it stirred up a few things in my heart:

• nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37)
• greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4)
• Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33)
• Jesus holds everything together (Col 1:17)
• this lite & momentary affliction is working in me a far greater weight of glory (2Cor 4:17)

giant killing strategies

 I read this morning in 2 Sam 21 about the 4 sons of a Philistine giant – some of them were quite fierce.  One of them had 24 fingers & toes (6 on each hand).  Nevertheless, David’s men killed these giants, all members of the same family.  I haven’t read anywhere in the Bible about people killing giants, other than David & Goliath in 1 Sam.  Here are some of the take aways I noted when facing giants:

• get around other giant killers – they’ll rub off on you 🙂
• don’t let their size intimidate you – they probably move slowly & may not be very bright
• giants often have alot of hot air (the devil goes around as a roaring lion)
• only one place does it describe how anyone killed a giant & that was with David & Goliath;  method isn’t as important as results
• be on the right side regardless of how things may appear to your eyes or thoughts – the giants were losers when they were confronted by David’s men

All of us have giants in our lives (jobs, families, employers, school, teachers, co-workers, relationships, emotional struggles, health challenges, etc).  I pray that you will intimidate these giants more than you’re intimidated by them.  Indeed, Jesus causes us to triumph in all things 🙂