Day 3 umbrella

 Yesterday we saw that fear isn't a God-given response necessary to keep us safe.  God is supposed to keep us safe.  We are safe in Him.  He is our strong tower, our defender, our protector.  He didnt create fear - the fall produced fear.   If we believe the lie that fear is inevitable or even necessary we accommodate it and excuse it and that makes it hard to get rid of.  So lets try to decide right now to change our thinking on this and see fear through a different lens.

So what exactly IS fear then ?

Romans 8:15  suggests that there is a spirit that makes us slaves to fear.  So fear is not only an emotional reaction, its a spiritual reality.     But WE DONT HAVE that spirit!  We are born again by the Spirit of God.  We live under the rule and reign of the HOLY spirit, so the spirit of fear no longer has dominion over us.  The spirit we have received is a spirit of sonship.   

What is a slave?  Someone who is not free to do what they want,  but more than that, someone who is forced to do what someone else wants.  Just stop for a moment and consider something in your life that makes you fearful.   What is it that fear wants you to do?  Maybe your fear is stopping you from doing something. Maybe it is affecting your health, your sleep. Maybe its distancing you from people or just telling you bad things about yourself.   That is slavery.

You are not a slave to fear. You have been redeemed - Jesus has paid the price to buy you out of slavery and now you are a son/daughter.  You no longer live where fear lives.  Jesus has moved you out of darkness into light

Many years ago when I was training as a social worker I was on placement in the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry.  One of my clients was a child of about 10 who was refusing to go to school.  As it turned out his mother was agoraphobic and hadnt been able to leave the house for years.  She had initially been able to get into the car with her husband and take the son to school. As long as she didnt have to get out of the car she could manage to get the boy to school.   But after a while she stopped being able to do that and then her separation anxiety became so difficult that the child wasn't able to leave her.  Mother Father and son were all incredibly enmeshed together in this web of co-dependency.  It was my job to ' fix ' them. 😊

After a few weeks my supervisor pulled me in and said ' What's the matter with you and this family?'  I asked what she meant.  She said ' They have got you in a right state. I've never seen you like this with any other client.  Its like you are paralysed.  Whats going on?'     I didnt know what was going on, so walking home that day I asked God.

Clear as day God said ' Its a spirit of fear'  And I saw a picture of this family standing under an umbrella.  I was walking in to stand under the umbrella with them. And as soon as I did, I became infected by the fear which was surrounding and overwhelming them.   God said ' You dont live there'  and I thought ' You know what God, You're right. I dont! '  I watched myself step out from underneath that umbrella and breathe.  From that moment on my interactions with that family changed completely.  And I learned something powerful. Fear is paralysing, contagious and powerful. But it has absolutely nothing to do with me. I dont want it,  I dont live under it. Jesus commands me not to fear, so Im not going to fear. End of.


Lord, thank you so much that I do not live under the umbrella of fear. Thank you that you have adopted me and call me your child. Thank you that you are my protection and my hope.  Lord if there are any places in me where fear is lurking please root them out. Help me to believe the Truth and stop listening to lies.  In you there is no darkness at all.  May there be no darkness in me either .  Amen

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