Fear is crippling.
Fear says a lot of things and when you hear fear a lot, you start believing it.
Fear is learned for the most part unless it is part of the fight or flight response. For example, I try not to tell the kids I am afraid of something unless I have tried it. Like riding roller coasters-I don’t like to ride them and they scare me because I have tried them.
Fear keeps you from doing anything you set your mind to, especially the thing that God wants you to do.
I have let my fears get in the way a lot.
Fear has told me that I am not good enough…
Fear has told me that my dreams are a waste of time…
Fear has told me that I am a terrible Mom…
Fear has told me that many people will judge me for telling my story…
Fear has told me that I am a failure…
Fear has told me that I shouldn’t ask for help…
Fear has told me that I am less of a Christian for “feeling” this way. For going through depression…
Fear has told me that I don’t have faith at all…
Fear has told me that I am a disappointment…
Fear is the opposite of getting anything done and the complete opposite of having any Hope or any sense of Hope at all!
The struggle with depression by far has been the hardest thing that I will ever talk about. The fear of what people think has affected the way I have tried to share about it before. I wake up everyday asking God to help me be brave and share my story in hopes of giving someone else hope. A speaker once said that,
“Sometimes, you are in darkness to dispel it with the Light inside of you.”
I share my story not to glory in the struggle of depression but to show you that I have Hope. To show you how I can get up, not by my own strength or by anything that I can do for myself. But to show that my Heavenly Father has sustained me, preserved my life! That in those times where it was so dark and I couldn’t take that 1 step in front of me, He was and is with me, telling me,
“Go forward, don’t be afraid, I LOVE You, dear Child! You are a daughter of the King of Kings, You are an heir to me. Place your Hope in me, trust Me! I am doing something and will use this very thing that the devil has tried/still tries to destroy you and even try to kill you, to make you stronger. I want to show you that even through this, my plans for you are for good and not anything to harm you. I want to show you that what I have started in you is not done yet. Yes, you are a work in progress but I will use this, to refine you. To show you that I can take the ugly and use the fire to melt all the ugliness away and make you shine brighter than gold. Trust me, my daughter, I have you, do not let go! Don’t let fear get in the way of you seeing Me through this, I will never leave you! I love you!”
1 John 4:18-19
“There is no fear in love. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us.”
