Worry, doubt, anxiety..... FEAR

This month's "BE A BETTER YOU" devotional is about how to fight these emotions.

Get out your bible, a pen, and some paper, and let's do a devotional!😁

I hope this encourages those of you who struggle with these emotions.

If you are or have been, one to struggle with these things......then you know the daily battles that are faced in everyday life. I understand, because this was a struggle for me as well.

These emotions come from the SPIRIT OF FEAR. This spirit brings anxiety, worry, fearfulness, and doubt. If we dwell on these negative emotions when we feel them, then it will also bring hopelessness and depression. Because when we feel fear and we worry about something, we are doubting and not trusting God. When what we should do, is pray about our worries, and then trust God with them. Because worrying changes nothing, It just makes us stressed. And when we are stressed about something, it can affect us more than we realize, and not in a good way.

PART OF MY STORY:

This happened to me. I would literally lose sleep worrying about something. I wasn't trusting God because I doubted that I could trust Him. I did not realize that this was what I was doing, at the time, but I was. I had no peace. If I wasn't worrying about one thing, I would find another reason to worry. I worried about my family and also all of the problems in the world. I couldn't even watch the news, without feeling panic. I would question everything and I had anxiety so much that my mind seemed to be running 100 miles per hour. I was always trying to figure everything out to prevent this or prevent that. I felt hopeless and thought that I just had to live with this because would never get better. See, this was the result of my lack of faith and not trusting in God.

What helped me to trust in God, was truly realizing that this fear that I was experiencing was from the enemy, from the Devil. The Bible says, "For God hath not given us the SPIRIT OF FEAR; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

(2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 7)

Clearly, these negative emotions do NOT result in a sound mind. That is what stuck out to me when I read this verse. I realized that I definitely did not have a sound mind and also, the fact that it says that God has NOT given us this spirit. The enemy uses this spirit to try to keep us from the will of God and to try to weaken our faith, so that we will DOUBT. When doubt, we aren't putting our faith in Christ, and we aren't trusting God as we should. That's exactly what the enemy wants!

THE ENEMY WANTS TO DISTRACT US WITH FEAR AND WORRY SO THAT WE WILL FEEL HOPELESS AND NOT PUT OUR FAITH IN GOD TO TRUST HIM. HE WANTS US TO LAY DOWN OUR SHELID

This knowledge of truth in God's word about the spirit of fear, made me realize how the enemy was trying to work against me. GOD IS LOVE and He gave us His WORD (the Bible) to help us see the TRUTH. His truth is power over the enemy. His word is the sword to defeat the enemy and FAITH is our SHEILD. I had the faith to know that through Jesus Christ, I am saved, I have a relationship with God. But I was NOT putting any of my faith into TRUSTING God to get me through these fearful anxious thoughts. Therefore, I felt HOPELESS.

I knew that I had the helmet of salvation, and I had the Word-my sword........but I realized that I WASN'T USING MY WEAPONS OF WARFARE AS EFFICIENTLY AS I COULD because I wasn't putting my trust in God and putting FAITH into fighting this. Therefore, I WAS WEAK IN MY SHEILD OF FAITH, so I couldn't block the enemy from attacking me with the spirit of fear and I was wearing myself out trying to fight him, because of my hopeless and defeated feelings causing me to doubt.

I realized that I needed to TRUST GOD and STOP DOUBTING that I could trust Him. I knew that I knew God. Acknowledging this, and knowing that I had the faith to BELIEVE in my wonderful God helped me to remember what Jesus says in the bible, about Faith:

"AND JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, BECAUSE OF YOUR UNBELIEF: FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, IF YOU HAVE FAITH AS A GRAIN MUSTARD SEED, YE SHALL SAY UNTO THIS MOUNTAIN, REMOVE HENCE TO YONDER PLACE; AND IT SHALL REMOVE; AND NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE UNTO YOU."

(Refer to the book of Matthew chapter 17 verses 20-21)

Remembering this helped to to believe that it IS possible to get through this and that I CAN trust God and that I should NOT be doubting Him! This helped me LIFT MY SHELID OF FAITH back up! I could then use my sword efficiently and stand strong in the full armor of God😁❤️

(READ ABOUT THE FULL ARMOUR OF GOD in the book of Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10-18) This KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH helped me NOT to fall into the Devil's TRAP of the spirit of fear; because now I could see what HE was TRYING to do, and what I NEEDED to do.

The battle is God's and THROUGH HIM is how we stand against the enemy. OUR FIGHT IS THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH! Our FAITH in God IS our FIGHT, against the enemy. Let us do our part as:

A GOOD SOLDIER OF CHRIST- (2nd Timothy chapter 2, verses 1-3)

DONT RE-TREAT!

*Build your faith and trust in God. Do this, through your relationship with Him, by COMMUNICATING with Him in prayer, and by FOCUSING on HIM and NOT on the emotions from fear and anxiety. Don't hold onto those emotions that the Devil tries to attack you with. RESIST them. Let God shield you and protect you so that you can GROW yourself, and ARMOR UP in the full armor of God, to prepare you, the next time the Devil tries to come at you. This is very important*

When we do this, the Devil will see the strength that we have obtained THROUGH CHRIST, and when he tries to attack us with the spirit of fear again, the attack will not be able to wound us like it used to. Yes, we may have our weak moments, but we will be stronger. And the more we PRAY, seek God and His word, and build our FAITH, TRUSTING HIM, the more we are able to SUBMIT ourselves to God. This helps us continue in our strength and RESIST the worry and those negative emotions that come with fear because we are now ARMOURED UP!

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil and he will flee from you."

(James chapter 4 verse 7)

***I encourage you to READ AND STUDY the verses of scripture mentioned in today's devotional.

Write them down if you feel led to😊 That always helps me.

ARMOR UP YA'LL!!!😁 YOU GOT THIS!!