Last Night I Had A Dream

My dream was this: I was playing out in my driveway with my kids, and all of a sudden off of my roof jumped a massive black creature. Maybe like something you'd see on a modern day alien movie. Black, hunchback, fangs, white teeth. Claws, muscles like superman and evil like you can imagine. The monster came and grabbed me and I think I died. I'm not sure what happened to my kids. I know this is a morbid dream, but it has a point. I have been a person who has always struggled with fear. And just last night before I went to bed I was thinking about how fear is kinda like a monster. The more you focus on it, the more you "feed it," the more the fear grows and grows. The more I fixate on a fear, the more I cannot remove the fear from my mind. Whether it be fear of someone breaking into your home, a fear of something happening to your children, or the fear of death, it doesn't really matter. Fear is fear, and fear is not of the Lord.

"For you did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slaved again to fear..." Romans 8:15

When I cave and give way and let fear reign in my heart, I am saying a few things, first I am saying that I don't trust the Lord. Because the Lord has promised me His best. And my times are in His hands. And also, nothing enters into my life except that which He allows in it. So if something scary enters into my life, it is something that He is letting in so that I can grow and learn from it. But I don't have to fear it. Whatever it is. Because God is giving me His best. (this is the circle I talk myself through every time I get afraid)
So fear is a monster. Fear can steal your peace faster than anything else. And ultimately, as a mom, or a human being, what is it that we fear most? Most would answer...death...or loss.
Right? Either you would die and your family would be left, and then who would care for them? (He does)
OR, its fear of losing a child, (which the enemy uses against me constantly) and in that case, I am fearful of the loss I will go through and how painful that will be. But truly, my times, and my child's times are IN HIS HANDS...and so I begin to talk myself through that circle again. I am afraid of my children facing physical pain. But the Bible tells us not be to be afraid of those that can harm the body, but rather, fear the one who holds our souls...and we don't have to fear HIM, because He already showed us the depths of His love by the way He sent His son for us through the cross, and grace. So here are some key points for us here who struggle with fear.
The number one thing I pray through whenever I begin to feel a fear come over me is this: 1 Peter 2:19b talks about that a man is a slave to whatever masters him. And I say, FEAR will not be my master. Jesus died to set me free from the fear of death. He died to set me free from slavery. And fear will not own me. If I am afraid of something, I am letting it have the drivers seat to my mind. "The mind of sinful man is death" Romans 8:6
I will not let my sinful mind take me down deaths road. I will not. Through the power of the cross and Jesus's blood, I can be an over-comer through Him who died to set me free. "They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony: they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death" -Revelation 12:11  AND "He who overcomes will like them, be dressed in white." Revelation 3:5
  "Do not GIVE WAY to fear." 1 Peter 3:6b
The Bible is full of His words about fear. And clearly, it is something He knew we would need encouragement on. We are not failures because we have fears. Some fear is normal and natural, but letting our minds be eaten alive by the fears we have is not the victorious type of living the Lord had in mind for us. He knows that death is imminent for all people. And sometimes there is pain that goes along with it, but if He were sitting next to me right now in human form and spoke I think He'd say this: " I know you have fears. But I'm bigger than those fears. I know you don't like pain, but by MY wounds you are healed. I know you are afraid of things happening to your children, but your children are mine, and I love them even more than you do, don't you trust that I will do for your children what is best for you and your children?" And I would have to say YES on all accounts, because I know, that He is king over this flood.
Do you agree? He did not want me to live as a slave. Fear is a monster that eats my peace, and essentially eats my ability to live in a joy-filled, victorious way. But fear is also a dungeon. Here I sit in my cell of fear, when Jesus has already come by with the key and flung my cell gate wide open. And yet, with a downcast face, I tell Him, "No thanks Lord, I'd rather sit here in my cell." REALLY?!!! This is what I do when I stay in my fear. SO friend... What is is that you are so afraid of? Name it, hand it to HIM so that He can tell you, just like He told Lazarus in John chapter 11 verse 44 to "take off your grave clothes and let him go!" Come out of the grave He says to you. Take off your clothes of slavery! LET ME hold your times. TRUST me fully. DON'T FEAR what man could do...I am KING over your times and I have promised to give you a HOPE AND A FUTURE. A person needs to only spend 5 seconds in the Psalms to realize that He is a GOD who saves. HE is a GOD who cares and HE IS a GOD who is concerned for YOU.
SO the monster who ate me in my dream, I do in fact know what fear he represented, and I am thankful to God for that dream because for one, it was so real. And for two, it gave me a visual on what my fear actually does to my life. He is KING over this flood. And just like Noah, I trust Him.
"And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." - Hebrews 2:15