Facing the Fear

Something has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks, so I am just going to start writing and share it with you all, because....well, because I think I'm supposed to. Right now, I am doing a Beth Moore bible study on the book of Esther, and it has been SO good. I have always loved the book of Esther, but the way Beth has picked it apart has been amazing and brought new things to light to me about the book. First of all, you must know that this is one of only two books in the Bible that bear the name of a woman (the other being Ruth, of course), and the Bible study is appropriately named Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman. The Bible study is (obviously) geared towards women, but there are so many things that apply to people in general - both male and female...except maybe that week on beauty treatments. :o)

Anyway, we only have about three more weeks of bible study left, and it has been such a blessing. I would definitely recommend doing or leading this study if you have the chance. There are about ten weeks worth of lessons that you do at home as well as a DVD that you watch with the group. This study will truly speak to you.

Each week, Beth concentrates on a reason "it's tough being a woman." During this particular session I'm talking about, she talked about "It's tough being a woman in the tight fist of fear." I know the study is for women, but can't everyone just substitute their name right in there in place of "a woman." I surely can...It's tough being Missy in the tight fist of fear. Fear. We are all fearful. Do you all know the most frequent command in the Bible? Some would think it would have to do with love or repentance or honor. However, the most frequent command in the Bible is "Fear not!" And, by the way, that is not a coincidence, because God isn't about coincidences. Human nature is to fear.

You might be saying, “I’m not afraid of anything. I’ve never had a problem with fear.” Well, I hate to tell you (actually, I really don't), but you, my friend, are in denial. And, Beth says in the video that there is no denial in courage. Courage is looking flat in the face of "it" (your fear) and denying that it will have victory over you. It's not courageous to deny your fear's existence, but it is courage when you deny that it has authority over you. Can we all just say "Wow" real quick. Culture teaches us to "toughen up" and "to get over it." So, we take that idea and worldly thought and end up just shoving the fears to the back of our minds. When we choose to ignore and deny our fears, those fears continue to live in us and continue to have power over us.

So, we must overcome those fears. But how? Obviously, we need to face our fears and identify them. How would you fill in the blanks for the following statement? If ____, then ____. Isn't that how all our fears echo around in our minds? If my husband cheats on me, then I'll just die inside and never feel alive again. If my child dies, then I'll go into a deep depression and cry all the time. If I fail, then I'll look like a complete idiot and lose my self-image. If the economy grows worse, then I'll be left with no money. Go ahead. Fill in the blanks. There are endless possibilities. And, the possibilities don't all have to be that extreme. Many of you have read my hand sanitizer post. If you haven't read it, read it now (I linked it). I'll have to say it is my favorite post ever. I'll have to say this one, "If I forget my hand sanitizer, then I'll get sick." That doesn't sound like something terrible to think, but there is an extremely fine line in there where even seemingly small fears like that can take over our minds.

Beth then said that we must fill in the blanks like this, "If ____, then God." If ____, then God will take care of me. If my husband cheats on me, then God will take care of me. If my child dies, then God will take care of me. You get the point. If we allow anything but God to fill in that "then" blank, we will be left in the tight grip of fear.

Notice that the statement isn't "If ___, then God will take care of me and make it right." Well, He will make it right, but we might not get what we want. Our husband might cheat on us. Our child might die. We might lose our self-image. We might get sick. God doesn't always give us what we think might be the best thing, but we are promised that He will still take care of us. He will give us strength and love and grace and everything else we need to handle the situation. If we are a child of God, we are given that promise. And, amazingly, we will eventually move on and go about regular life. God doesn't want our conditional trust but our trust...period.

Courage comes from the Latin word meaning "cor," meaning heart....a heart, that is, that knows God loves you. There are numerous places in the bible where we are told to, "Take courage...." I've never really thought about it before, but notice that word "take." It's kind of like we are being told by Jesus, "Okay, here is some courage. Now, take it. Go ahead. It's right here." We just have to trust Him. Remember, if ____, then God! Since I heard that, I have been so tempted to take a Sharpie and write that really big on my mirror, but I don't think my husband would be too happy with that. We have an amazing God, don't we?