Fear Not - New Evangelizers

Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!

 

I have a confession to make: I am afraid; afraid to be different, to be seen differently from my peers, to not be approved of by some human standards, afraid of being successful. And the list goes on. I wouldn’t say that I have constant anxiety, but I definitely lose sleep because of it. The world news only adds to the feelings of fear and doom.

This is not a problem that I suffer from alone. There are all kinds of articles and experts out there telling us how to reduce stress and rid ourselves of anxiety. Drug companies make a lot of money off of the numerous drugs they have created to handle our stress and then even more money off of the drugs made to deal with the side effects of said drugs. This vicious cycle only serves to add to our stress and anxiety. And if those experts weren’t enough, there are so many alternative methods luring us with their magical cure. So we continue on the cycle by losing or gaining weight, losing sleep and continuing to do things that compromise our health. Then finally if we don’t find the perfect solution we become prisoners of the fear and anxiety.

Now don’t get me wrong: I am not saying that those methods mentioned above don’t work or that if you are using any of them, under doctor’s orders or not that you should stop. I am not a medical expert and I am sure that there is some value in the aforementioned methods. I, myself have taken some of the drugs and use some of the non-medicinal remedies. And with my doctors knowledge and approval have gone off the drugs.

My humble opinion is that our society has gone too far to the scientific side to cure all our ills. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing inherently wrong with science and I feel that science and religion can work well to together. But I also think that in our quest to find the perfect cure we have left out one very important component: God.

But this article is not about the battle of science-vs-faith, instead it’s about faith. I know someone has counted it and I don’t know the exact number, but it’s a lot. Jesus told us not to fear. The words of Psalm 43: 5echo in my mind: Fear not, for I am with you.

Jesus is right there with me, in front of me, behind me, beside me. Why do I fear? What if instead of hiding in fear, giving into the anxiety, I prayed. I looked Satan in the face, because you know he is the one that is planting all that fear and doubt so he can enslave you. So what if I surprised him turned the tables on him and prayed. But I can’t stop at praying. I need to be proactive and do the thing he least expects of me. So many people say they are praying, and yet that is all they do and their words are empty words. Action needs to be taken. We need to with Jesus by our side take steps to make the changes and chase fear and doubt from our lives.  We need to step out of our safety bubbles and away from the fear of not meeting some human standard. We need to strive to be more like Jesus; to put aside our fear and anxiety about being different, of not being accepted. We need to shake up the status quo. We need a little of Jesus overturning the tables in the temple, or baiting the Pharisees.

It is time to stop living in here, and embrace that Jesus is with us.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, I suffer from anxiety. It generally attacks at night when I’m trying to fall asleep. Health fears, parenting issues, marriage issues all haunt me and prevent me from sleeping. I have made a conscious decision with my doctor’s knowledge not to continue to take medicines that have side effects that I cannot deal with. To try and combat the attacks I drink chamomile tea, use lavender lotion and take a melatonin tablet. When Satan is pulling out all the stops and these methods do not work, I have made up a prayer that I say along with the prayers that I learned as a child, which includes the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary.

Dear Lord Jesus, I thank you for all the gifts you have given me. I sing your praises to the highest heavens. Dear Lord, cloak me in your mercy, grace and love. Shield me from the arrows of hate, greed, doubt and fear that Satan would hurl at me.

Holy Spirit I am grateful for the many gifts you have given me and I pray that you would ignite in me a passion to share those precious gifts with all your children. These I pray through the most holy Jesus Christ and his blessed mother Mary. Amen.

These may not be the exact words I say every night, but you get the idea. When I pray this along with however many of the learned prayers are necessary as well as through the power of the most high ordering Satan to leave I manage to settle into a restful night’s sleep and awake ready to take on the new day with Christ by my side.

Some may think I am crazy, a little weird, but I would rather be a lot weird with Christ at my side than whatever Satan’s empty promises hold if I turn to him instead of Christ.

So embrace the differences. Be Christ’s accomplice in changing the world.

Christina Weigand

Christina Weigand’s a writer, wife, and mother of four. She is also Nana to three granddaughters. She lives with her husband and youngest daughter in Cranberry Twp. Pennsylvania, returning there after a short sabbatical in Washington. Currently, she’s working on fantasy novels and inspirational writing. Through her writing, she strives to share the Word of God and help people young and old to realize the love and mercy He has for everyone. When she’s not writing, she’s active in her local Church as a lector, Bible Study, volunteering at her daughter’s school helping the children develop a love for reading and writing. Jesus fills her home with love as she shares Him through her writing.