By the time you’re reading this, our world will hopefully be way past this current CoronaVirus scare. But even if that is the case, we have always and will continue to live in a world where much of what takes place is out of our control – and therefore, scary! It’s how we deal with this that makes a difference between a life controlled by fear and anxiety or one controlled by peace and faith.
I’m rather a newcomer to the emotion of fear. Beyond my irrational fear of water (being in a body of water where I cannot touch bottom, no problem taking a shower – haha!) that I’ve had since a small child, I really had no experience with stifling fear. Until a few years ago when I began tuning in to voices that were addressing all the problems in our country and the world – from financial to moral to political – and all of a sudden I found myself in a grip of fear that I had never before experienced. And it was all consuming and terrifying. I found myself praying daily for God to return to take me to heaven, or to get me out of this world any way possible. I didn’t want to be here anymore!
A visit out of our valley heat up to cooler mountain temperatures and a serene setting with my sister helped me begin to adjust my mind to truth instead of fear. I think back to what I learned at that time and find myself wanting to apply these principles again today so I don’t slide back to that place. My sister reminded me that our mind is a powerful weapon and we can move beyond the fear by moving beyond our thoughts. And she reminded me what a powerful adversary the devil is and how he comes to steal and destroy, and will exploit random and innocent thoughts if he sees a crack in the door he can squeeze through.
So I dove in to several practices and reminders until I came out of that immobilizing place. The first began with getting my mind in the right place – filling it with truth instead of speculation. Here are the steps I followed:
- Turn off/quit focusing on the negativity. Reading, listening, filling my head with all the “what if’s” was not going to help me move through this.
- Instead filling my mind with truth – besides having uplifting Christian music playing 24/7 (I highly recommend K-LOVE, AIR ONE & FLR), I spent as much time as possible reading God’s promises in my Bible, reading books that would remind me Who is ultimately in control, and listening to videos (before the podcast world of today) with that same theme. Besides my Bible, the books that helped me the most were the Victory in Spiritual Warfare book and video series by Tony Evans, Breaking Intimidation by John Bevere, A Year in the Now by Bishop Jim Swilley, and Switch on Your Brain by Dr. Caroline Leaf. Dr. Leaf has a great 21 day practice to help you switch your thoughts from negative to positive through the practice of neuroplasticity that was very helpful.
- Writing down sentences or paragraphs from each of these along with Bible promises in my Reading Journal that I referred to in another post. If you would like a list of the quotes and Bible verses that were the most help to me, you can request them here.
These Bible verses are ones I’ve gone back to time and again whenever I feel that old feeling begin to creep in. “Dear friend, guard Clear thinking and Common Sense with your life; don’t for a minute lose sight of them. They’ll keep your soul alive and well, they’ll keep you fit and attractive. You’ll travel safely, you’ll neither tire nor trip. You’ll take afternoon naps without a worry, you’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep. No need to panic over alarms or surprises, or predictions that doomsday’s just around the corner, because God will be right there with you; He’ll keep you safe and sound.” Proverbs 3:21-26 NLT
Gradually, the spirit of fear that was over me began to lift. I found I would wake up in the night with words from songs I’d been listening to going through my head instead of fearful thoughts that wouldn’t allow me to go back to sleep. My internal peace began to return. Since that time, I have continued to be ruthless about keeping out the reports and speculations that could put me back in that place. And I have continued with these practices that encourage my mind to stay healthy. I can promise you, it is a much more peaceful and joyful place to live.
I would love to hear what practices you have established to help keep your mind in the right place even when things around you may be falling apart. Let me end with this excerpt from Lisa Terkeurst’s book, "It's Not Supposed to Be This Way" which I highly recommend by the way.
Life may be swirling all around me, threatening to steal my hope, my peace, my joy. But I am declaring right now that I will not be swept up into a storm of fear and wild emotions. The Lord has promised me that He will keep me in perfect peace when I fix my mind on Him. I very much recognize I will steer where I stare. So I must watch what I fixate on. If I keep staring at wrong things, I’ll go in wrong directions. I am choosing to place my attention on the Lord in this very moment. I am choosing to focus on trusting Him and believing His promises. And as I steer my attention more and more toward Him, His peace will come and flood my heart and settle my anxious mind. Isaiah 26:3
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