Don’t Miss This: Why Your Level of Fear Matters
Inside: Why live with more faith over fear? Tips and advice for checking your thoughts and living from a place of faith versus the emotion of fear!
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This season is unsettling to say the least. There are a lot of unknowns and uncertainty, not knowing what the future holds.
For many of us, we have had to grasp hold of our faith in new ways.
We know God has us, but when we are living in day to day change, we have to believe without seeing eyes!
As humans, when we can’t control our situation, we feel stressed, tense, afraid, and frustrated. If you’ve felt one of these, or maybe all of them, the last few weeks, congratulations, you’re a human!
As a Christian, we know that everything is filtered through God’s hands. If you didn’t know this, I think this is something to cherish.
Our Father doesn’t let anything happen without His knowledge. He knew this was coming.
Indeed, this should bring us some comfort knowing God knew it was coming. And yet, we might ask why He allowed it.
Faith Over Fear
Before I go down a rabbit hill of lots of explanation…
Let me just briefly say that we live in a fallen world where the effects of sin are in full affect.
Therefore, viruses, sickness, and death are a consequence of this fallen world.
In all honesty, humans choose sin every day. We choose it many times because we want to feel good and do the easy thing.
However, God tells us in His Word that if we follow His ways we can live abundantly and full of joy. Even when hard things come our way.
Many of us will question if God is good…
As Lysa TerKeurst says, “God is good. God is good to me. God is good at being God.”
We don’t understand all the whys, but we do know that God can use all of it for our good. We just need to trust Him and His plans.
I have heard it a few times that God might have allowed this to happen to open up our eyes to how far we have deviated from Him.
Ponder this thought, if you will.
He might be using this as a spiritual awakening to lead us back to His Word and His guidance for our ways.
What Will You Choose?
Right here is the foundational thought we need to choose:
Will we live in fear while following the fear mongering by the media, or will we live trusting and believing in faith that God will use all of this?
Here’s the truth, one will boost your emotional health and give you a peace that transcends all understanding and the other will just drive you farther down into fear.
Additionally, living in fear has so many effects on your body systems:
- Immunity goes down
- Blood pressure goes up
- Cortisol (a stress hormone is released in greater amounts)
- Cardiovascular problems
- Gastrointestinal issues
- IBS
- Decreased fertility
In summary, fear and tension are not beneficial emotions on your body.
All in all, our emotional health is important.
Don’t you agree?
Our Thoughts Create Our Emotions
Did you know that your thoughts create your emotions?
We aren’t angry until we tell ourselves something made us angry.
Or how about stress? We only become stressed when the pervasive thought in our mind is how overwhelmed we are.
And like clockwork, our neck, lower back or headache pops up. (Where do you hold your stress?)
Right now I can suffice to say that many people are feeling the effects of fear and stress. Even those of us that profess to be Christians.
So we are saying we are Christians, but then becoming a ball of tension?
To get back to the point, this season requires that we choose to think differently.
We intentionally say that we will trust and believe in whatever God has decided.
By the way, we listen to the government officials recommendations and use our brains to make wise decisions, but at its core, we ask God to guide us.
A few years ago, I had sunk into a pit of hopelessness. Baby number five had just be born, and I had become so negative in my thinking.
It was like I couldn’t see anything past the black cloud right in front of my eyes. I didn’t think I’d ever get better.
The fact of the matter is: When that way of thinking becomes your default thoughts, the rest of your thinking spirals deeper.
I finally started to see hope when I learned that I could choose what I thought about!
It might sound easy, but let me tell you friend, it’s a daily, intentional battle of asking God to help and then redirecting thoughts!
Choosing Faith Over All Fear
God has given us the power to direct our thoughts!
Right now during the uncertainty of the present time, we have the power to choose how we think about what’s going on.
Our thoughts can make us emotionally well or emotionally sick.
So what are you going to choose?
For more information: Why am I Always Focused on Negative Thoughts?
So what can we do to keep ourselves in tip-top emotional health?
7 Important Ways to Bolster Your Fear Level
- Get enough sleep. Did you know that sleep issues have a direct effect on our sleep?
- Eating right. What we put in our mouths can affect our emotional health!
- Spend time in the Word. Focusing on the power and promises of God are healing balm to the soul!
- Add daily prayer into your routine. Praying relieves stress and tension.
- Make it a habit to move your body daily for at least 30 minutes. Getting outside is a bonus.
- I have added oils into my routine and by diffusing them have noticed huge benefits to myself and my family. To read more about my story! Did you know oils have been used since Biblical times?
- Finding your community! I have a small Bible study group that I meet with weekly (Before all of the social distancing). I didn’t realize how important these ladies have been to me. I miss them!
*if you feel like you need further help, please contact your doctor!
Lessons from the Disciples
We often wonder how the disciples endured such pain and suffering. I believe that Jesus taught them how to take care of themselves emotionally.
In His Word, Jesus tells us to focus on what is above; because when we focus on things of Earth, it’s rather maddening.
Colossians 3:2 English Standard Version (ESV)
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
I think this is the key to overcoming right now!
Allow yourself to feel the emotions of sadness, anger, and frustration. Ask yourself why those feelings are present, give yourself grace, and then redirect your thoughts to the blessings in your life.
God allowed us to experience emotions as part of the human experience, Jesus experienced emotions also. However, Jesus redirected them.
Jesus was sad and wept when Lazarus died, but He went to the tomb and told everyone to focus on this:
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40, NIV).
Even when life is hard to swallow, we can be assured that the glory of God will shine forth!
“Our lives are full of supposes. Suppose this should happen, or suppose that should happen; what could we do; how could we bear it? But, if we are living in the high tower of the dwelling place of God, all these supposes will drop out of our lives. We shall be quiet from the fear of evil, for no threatenings of evil can penetrate into the high tower of God”
~Hannah Whitall Smith
