My Thorn: Part 3

I mentioned in my last thorn post that I had found the Girl Talk Blog fear series and it has been so good for me to read!! Last time I was reminded to not listen to the lies of my fears but to listen to the truth of God's Word!

Here is an excerpt of the most recent post I've been reading over and thinking about:

"Our fears are due to our failure to stir up--failure to think, failure to take ourselves in hand. You find yourself looking to the future and then you begin to imagine things and you say: 'I wonder what is going to happen?' And then, your imagination runs away with you. You are gripped by the thing...this thing overwhelms you and down you go. Now the first thing you have to do is to take a firm grip of yourself, to pull yourself up, to stir up yourself, to take yourself in hand and to speak to yourself." Dr Lloyd Jones

Even before reading this I have found myself putting this into practice. I talk to myself OFTEN! And it is really a helpful tip! So, what do I say to myself? Well, lot of what I say is straight from God's Word.

Philippians 4:6-7 ~ "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

The above verses I put to memory a long time ago. I can't tell you how many times I've been up in the middle of the night repeating those words over and over and over.

Sometimes I remind myself,

"I am free. I am not a slave to sin anymore. Christ came to set me free! There is freedom in Christ"

And I repeat that with Galatians 5:1 in the back of my mind,

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

and

"for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." 1 Timothy 2:7

And you know, sometimes I just say,

"Crystal, get yourself together!! You are being ridiculous! Take a deep breath and calm down!"

Then I follow with a verse to remind myself why I'm being ridiculous! Like,

"And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" Matthew 6:27

Remembering, meditating, and praying God's Word can really do wonders with anxiety and fear! I pray for you and for myself that we can be like the Proverbs 31 woman:


"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come." Proverbs 31:25

Need to catch up? Here are the first two posts in this series:

Part 1
Part 2

I'm linking this post up with Time Warp Wife's {TITUS 2}SDAYS.

My Thorn: Part 2

After posting about my thorn a few weeks ago, a friend directed me to the Girl Talk Blog. I've been there before but it's been months since I've visited. For the past few months they've had a series of posts on fear. I have read through many of them and found so much wisdom and truth there concerning fear and anxiety.

I'm going to spotlight a few of the posts that I really liked and share a little bit about how it helped me.

Here is the first one that really caught my attention.

One afternoon, after much inner struggling, the Hubs and I talked. Ok, he listened and I poured out my heart and tears. I remember telling him that I knew these fears weren't from God. God is not the author of this kind of fear and anxiety. Scripture says,

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:7

I know this. Yet, I fear.

So, I must choose to not listen to the lies. I must remind myself of the truth. Yes, fear feels so real and sometimes it swallows me whole. But Who is trustworthy?

Every time we are tempted to fear, we have a choice. We must choose between believing our own fickle, sinful, "sense" or God's faithful, righteous Word. If we trust our fears, we are calling God a liar. Girl Talk Blog

Part 3

My Thorn

Around the blogging community that are tons of posts up about the new year.. goals, resolutions, or the boycott of the two. I don't do resolutions but I have been thinking the past week of things that I would like to see changed. Things I want to become new.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 1 Corinthians 5:17

The new has come. And I want more new.

I want to love more. I want to love those closest to me more. I want to love strangers more. I want to be an extension of love.

But to do that, I must work on my fear. I struggle... I wrestle with fear. It is crippling. Some times are worse than others. But all times it is present.

Maybe one day I'll share more because I know I'm not alone. But I will share, this fear is greater than normal day to day worries or fear that comes from normal anxious moments in life. It is a thorn in my flesh.

My hope:

This fear is not greater than my God. And this fear did not come from Him.

"for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:7

We are all weak, but His power is made perfect in our weakness.

Part 2

Part 3