Do you ever wake up, seized with fear? In the grips of the enemy, so tightly that your stomach hurts and your limbs seize up? When you can't get through a day where God has ALREADY given you a victory, but because you keep focusing on the fear in your heart, mind and soul, that you just walk around like a shadow of who you are?

I am there right now. Some days, the light shines and I see the heavens and all their glory. I feel the touch of my Savior, I hear His voice and I hide under the shadow of His wings. Yet, why is it that sometimes, I stumble and allow the enemy to one-up me? To regurgitate the crap, the garbage and the lies as a means to knock my legs out from under me? To focus on the destructive things he puts into my head? Fear. The spirit of fear.

As a Christian, I know we are blessed with good fear. For example, a fear of falling off a steep mountain, well, that keeps me from... you guessed it... falling off a steep mountain. That is reasonable fear. But when the SPIRIT of fear grips you, it is like that choke weed. It slowly encroaches and encircles you, and makes you forget all else. And choke weed, as you know, is hard to get rid of.

Here is what I know:

The spirit of power God gave me allows me to do great things through the strength of God -- it allows me to withstand the barrage of garbage that is flung at me from the enemy. As a wise friend of mine said the other day, as an heir to the King of Kings, I don't have to take anything that the enemy throws at me. Why? Because, in Christ, the ultimate power, I HAVE ALREADY WON -- HE won the victory for me.

The spirit of love -- that beautiful, protective force, is there. While sometimes it feels like God is hiding his face, He is still there. A gentle father, calling us, consoling us, and opening His arms to us in times of both sorrow and joy. But why is it that we forget, in times of struggle, what the comfort and love feels like? We are always told to love others, to love the Lord... but why then do we walk in the perpetual state of worry... I say we, but I should mean I... is it that we forget what it is to be loved by our Father, even when His love doesn't end and doesn't stop?

The spirit of self-control (or a sound mind) - this is a blessing from God in dark times. It is there, by grace of the Helmet of Salvation, so that we can hold tight to what we know to be true: that we are powerful in Christ, that we are loved, that we are His heirs, and that we are comforted and cheered on by a great cloud of witnesses. When God guards our mind, we have peace. It's a great feeling but, of late, I seem to be forgetting that.

Fear is destructive. It is debilitating. It is a tool of the enemy used to destroy. Yet if we focus on the three things we have by God's grace: power, love and a sound mind, we can and will emerge victorious.

My prayer is that all of us would realize it, starting with myself. Right now.

2 Timothy 1:7