which is too often. you too?
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it's usually when my husband is out of town and i'm home alone. he used to be gone a lot, but it's much less frequent now. you'd think with experience and age i'd become more accustomed to it, but i haven't. i still go upstairs before it gets dark and close all the blinds and lock my bedroom door and leave the bathroom light on [usually the tv is on really low all night too]. seriously, i know. it's on the verge of crazy.
this last time that i was alone, i decided to take my fear and my destructive thoughts captive, to make them obedient to Christ. instead of straining my ears into the silence and hearing every tiny creak of the house and car that drove by, i practiced faith. and by practice i mean that i got out a notebook and my Bible, and i started to write about how big my God is. i opened to Job and Isaiah and copied down, with a good-old-fashioned pen and paper, all the works and attributes of God. you could look in the Psalms, or anywhere else really, but i started with Job 38 because I knew it would be good:
1. laid the earth's foundation
2. marked off its dimension
3. laid its cornerstone
4. shut up the sea behind the doors
5. made the clouds a garment
6. gives orders to the morning
i just kept copying them down in list form. writing it out and breathing in every word helped me to feel safe and protected in His sovereign, capable and mighty hands. if He has done all these great things, what or whom can I fear? it made all the difference. He will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in Him. plus i fell asleep while making my list, so i never had time to be scared. and the bonus is that now i have two pages worth of awesomeness all in one place. i copied from Job 9, 12, 26, 38, 39, 40 and Isaiah 40 and 45...
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tends His flock like a shepherd
gently leads
measures the waters
marks off the heavens
holds the dust of the earth in a basket
weighs the mountains on scales
no one has taught Him
sits enthroned above the earth
endows the heart with wisdom
gives understanding to the mind
counts the clouds
tips the water jars of the heavens
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
and so. much. more. try it, you'll see. there's no room for fear when you are surrounded and engulfed in the greatness of a God that we will never begin to fully comprehend. it's just like my post about filling your mind with scripture to keep yourself from sinning... do the same to combat fear. it works. and isn't He so beautifully described, too? i just love the way the specific words in each phrase paint a vivid picture of His majesty and strength and big-ness. His word is just breathtaking sometimes, isn't it?
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
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