Fears in the night are often just plain foolish – phantoms that amount to nothing but in the darkness of the moment appear larger than life. Recently I awoke in the night and found myself groaning in fear over how my recent Facebook post may be misconstrued. I lay there agonized until I woke enough to realize my folly. My dismay revealed a character flaw I needed to address: I get entrapped by the fear of what others think of me. This fear can hold me captive to insecurity; it can alter my\u00a0decisions and cripple my ability to act.<\/p>\n
The next morning I \u201cwent around the circle\u201d (as we say in 3DM and The Order of Mission). I \u201crepented\u201d and then \u201cbelieved\u201d the good news. Thank God for the good news, the potential for change!<\/p>\n
The process of what the Bible calls repentance is really just a process for learning and transformation. Change begins with simple observation<\/em>. In this case I observed that I give fear too much power.<\/p>\n Next, I reflected <\/em>on the implications of this problem. I thought about the stress that ensues whenever I put my trust in my Enemy\u2019s false accusations. This stress causes all sorts of havoc in my life: it sucks the joy out the journey; it creates tension and sometimes even real physical pain; it makes me irritable and that can wound my relationships; it generally messes with me, and I don\u2019t like it, and neither does God. On reflection I see that most of these fears are based on false assumptions. I\u2019m believing a lie, and lies are always dangerous. My fears that others are judging me is really silly. And so what if they are. Does it really matter if I KNOW that God accepts and loves me?<\/p>\n Next, I discussed <\/em>my quandary. Mark and I talked about what I\u2019d realized. It felt good to share with someone, and I found that by\u00a0 bringing the deception into the light I could begin to realize that it wasn\u2019t as ominous as I imagined. Just by saying it aloud I could begin to see my way clear: fear is not a life sentence to doom. With help I began to believe that God could overcome this giant.<\/p>\n I made a plan<\/em>. Seeing folly and believing truth is a great start, but that only takes me half way \u201cround\u201d the learning circle. I have to move onward and do something about the good news. In his case my plan of action involved a renewed determination to grab what Paul and Apostle calls \u201cthe shield of faith\u201d and the \u201carmor of God.\u201d It sounds cumbersome but actually I found it quite \u00a0comfortable! I decided to change my mind from believing the lie that I am responsible for how I am perceived. Like Sally in \u201cYou\u2019re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,\u201d I grabbed a new philosophy.<\/p>\n And my plan: each morning as I get dressed I would imagine\u00a0myself \u201cputting on\u201d the armor of God \u2013 the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the sword of the Spirit. And then I would stand\u2026 Physically I would stamp my feet and stand strong in who GOD says I am! That would be my morning ritual\u2026 Then, I made myself accountable. I cut myself free from accountability to random people, and renewed my accountability to God and a few important, honest people who love me. I told them about my morning plan and asked them to ask me how it\u2019s going.<\/p>\n It works. I\u2019ve come full circle. I\u2019ve changed. I\u2019ve \u201crepented\u201d and I\u2019m living in a new way. I\u2019m not perfect and sometimes I still fall\u00a0 under fear. But I know where to turn. I can hide in God instead of under my covers. There, I\u2019m never vulnerable, no matter what anyone thinks of me. No matter how they rock my boat, I can curl up with Jesus and sleep in peace through the storm, blissfully oblivious to anything other than the sound of His gentle breathing.<\/p>\n \u201cGod, my soul finds rest in you alone! You are there, and you love me. What else matters? If you are for me \u2013 and you are \u2013 who can be against me?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fears in the night are often just plain foolish – phantoms that amount to nothing but in the darkness of the moment appear larger than life. Recently I awoke in the night and found myself groaning in fear over how my recent Facebook post may be misconstrued. I lay there agonized until I woke enough…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[47,56,58,60,59,57],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-change-for-good","category-uncategorized","tag-change","tag-fear","tag-fear-in-the-night","tag-panic","tag-panic-attacks","tag-paranoia"],"yoast_head":"\n