Do you struggle with fear, anxiety, worry, and/or stress? You are not alone. I’ve battled fear and its tentacles my entire life, and many other people do, too.

The world is a scary, dangerous , and unpredictable place today. Fear of not having enough money for the future, fear of terrorism, fear of people you love dying or becoming seriously ill, and fear of corruption of government officials are the top fears for Americans, according to the Chapman University Survey of American Fears.  

Other fears people commonly share are:

• fear of public speaking;
• fear of the dark;
• fear of snakes;
• fear of spiders;
• fear of closed in spaces;
• fear of heights;
• fear of flying;
• fear of death;
•  and even fear of clowns! Whatever your fear is, it can be paralyzing.

Fear can bind and stop you from achieving God’s purpose in your life. Fear is a prison.

God doesn’t want you afraid, but to trust Him through faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus often rebuked His disciples for being afraid and not having faith. I don’t want Jesus rebuking me, but to commend me for my great faith. What about you?

The way we conquer fear is by renewing our minds through God’s eternal word, prayer, worship, and involvement in a community of believers to help our faith grow.

Need to be encouraged and strengthened through hope and faith in God’s word?

I want to invite you to join me on my free telecall on Saturday, January 28 at 10 a.m. Central Time.

Fearless telecall

Fearless: Be Set Free From Fear

Here’s the details:

• Call into my Free Conference Call line at  Free Conference Call
   Conference Dial-in Number: (605) 475-4800
   Participant Access Code: 401886#
• The call will be approximately 30 minutes long from 10 AM Central Time (11 AM Eastern Time, and 8 AM Pacific Time).
• I will conclude the call with praying for attendees, for God to replace your fear with faith in Jesus Christ. Together we can defeat the enemy of fear so that we can walk confidently and victoriously in our God-designed purpose and calling.
• Toward the end of this telecall, I’ll share an opportunity for you to buy my newest book, Metamorphosis: Transformed From Fear to Faith, available as an eBook for Kindle at Amazon. You’re under no obligation to buy the book, but it may greatly encourage you or someone you love or know.
• Join other women of God for a time of empowerment. I saw this picture below on Pinterest today, and I felt it was a timely word with the launch of my new eBook on Amazon. “With brave wings she flies.” Ready to fly, beautiful butterfly?

 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”–Romans 12:2, NASB

I can’t wait to see you there! Please like and share on your fave social media sites with your family, friends, and peers!

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I’m drinking a pumpkin spice cappuccino, thankful for the quiet at home (Ray is at work). My plan today is to finish my Bible study on The Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer, the woman who starred as the mom in War Room.

Priscilla Shirer’s Bible study

Recently I had a book signing and sale at The Carpenter’s Cup Christian bookstore and coffee shop in Butler, and the store owner Becky Clift invited me to join a ladies’ Bible study there on Monday evenings. (Be sure to check out this cool store if you are passing through Butler!)

This week I’ve been studying the shoes of peace. One of my biggest struggle areas is worrying and stressing out too much, especially over our kids and grandkids. (Actually the way my family puts it is, “Stop freaking out, mom!”)

I deeply desire to be a woman of great faith, but I’m still very much a work in progress. I’m praying for God to help me walk in these shoes of peace each day, because they’re a powerful weapon against Satan.

Marines in war

The author of this Bible study, Priscilla Shirer, says that anywhere peace is lacking, you can be sure the enemy Satan is at work. She writes on page 95:

“Of all the things the enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy in your life, peace is almost always at or near the top of his list. He intentionally stirs up discord, division, disruption, and disturbance, both within you and around you. He is the lord of chaos and confusion, using every opportunity to upset your sense of well being and stability. He wants you uneasy, unbalanced, filled with anxiety, worry, and turmoil. Lacking peace.”

Without our shoes of peace, we become unfit for spiritual warfare, unable to advance against the enemy, she writes. Fear, stress, and worry distract you. They imprison you.

anchor

This lack of peace will keep you and me from being clearheaded and able to fight Satan, Priscilla writes on page. 99. But God’s peace will anchor your soul, tethering it to the security found in His gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.  

The way we get that peace is by spending time each day in prayer and reading and meditating on the Bible, being transformed by God’s word renewing our minds. (Romans 12:2)

Trusting in Him, instead of in our own power. Thanking Him, because “prayer shrouded in gratitude expresses a firm faith. Concentrating on Him instead of being absorbed by our circumstances tells the Lord that we believe He is able to override and overcome even the most difficult issues.” God responds by releasing His peace within us.

Woman praying

One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned from this study so far is this: when I’m worried or stressing out, pray and thank God. What a revelation!

“Any time you feel worry or anxiety creeping into your heart, take it as your cue to turn your attention to God. Pray. Trust Him. Be grateful. And watch His peace–a peace you cannot even begin to explain–swell in your experience. Then you feet will be fitted with the shalom of God.” (p. 112)

woman worrying

Do you struggle with worrying or stressing out too much? Leave your comments below. 

“May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16, HCSB)

I highly recommend this Bible study by Priscilla Shirer. You can purchase it at LifeWay here.

*******

Copyright 2016 Beth Jones

Are you like me and worry or stress out too much? Do you battle fear? I’ve written a new book, Metamorphosis: Transformed from Fear to Faith.

It will be available soon as an eBook for your Kindle on Amazon! If you aren’t already signed up on my personal mailing list, be sure to sign up at the top of the page on the right hand side, so you’ll be first to know the details when it releases soon!

I don’t know why Labor Day was created, but my life also sometimes feels like labor–the continual, agonizing pains of childbirth:

• financial challenges
• marriage problems
• our grown kids’ struggles
• disappointments
• stress upon stress, until I feel like I’m going to break.

Maybe breaking is what God is after in me. 

Brokenness.

Humility.

Obedience.

Surrender.

The breaking reminds me for some reason of the children’s nursery rhyme and lullaby, Rock-a-by, Baby:

baby in tree top
http://www.crystalinks.com/rockabyebaby.jpg

Part of the lyrics say:

Rock-a-by, baby, on the tree top

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.

And when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,

Down will come baby, cradle and all. 

What a strange nursery rhyme! 

Why would a baby be on top of a tree?

Why does the cradle rock gently when the wind blows?

Why doesn’t it come crashing down right away?

crib

There are various theories to explain the origins of this lullaby.

One suggests it narrates a mother rocking a baby to sleep like the baby is riding on the treetops during a breeze. Then when she lowers the baby to the crib, the song says, “Down will come baby.”

Another theory says it may have been written by an English immigrant observing native American women rocking their babies in birch-bark cradles, suspended from the branches of trees and allowing the wind to rock the baby to sleep. But the words appeared in print first in England, c. 1765.

A third theory is that the baby is the son of James VII and II, widely believed to be someone’s child smuggled into the birthing room to provide a Roman Catholic heir for James. The wind may be the Protestant “wind” or force blowing from the Netherlands, bringing his nephew and son-in-law William of Orange. He deposed King James II in the revolution. The cradle is the House of Stuart. Some nursery rhymes are political in origin.

At any rate, the wind blows…sometimes too hard, and then it all comes smashing down. 

What then?

Only that instead of “laboring” and striving in our own strength, rest in God.

Trust Him.

Lay your burdens and stress at His feet and let Him take care of it all…and cradle you.

What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days
Holley Gerth

I love what Holley Gerth wrote in her little devotional book, What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days, pp. 26-27:

“When the day seems difficult, when you’re weary, when you feel like a failure…God is encouraging you. For so long I thought of him as standing by and shaking his head as he wondered, “Why can’t you get it all together?” But that’s not his heart toward us at all. To encourage literally means “to give courage,” and that’s what God wants to do for us on the hard days. He says to us, “I’m here. I will help you. I will give you strength to take one more step.” He looks at your life with infinite love and tenderness. And he knows how hard it is to be us sometimes. He lived in this world. He experienced pain. He died on a cross. Jesus understands how brutal this world can be...What if, on the days when it’s hard for you to get out of bed, you imagined him reaching out to lift you up instead of being disappointed in you? What if he’s cheering you as you take your first step into a day that’s not one you want to face? What if instead of saying, “Get it together,” he’s whispering, “Let’s do this together”? That changes everything. And it can change us.”