Welcome to Week 4 of the Sunshine & Scripture Tour!

This week I'm so excited to introduce you to an someone who has brought me endless encouragement and insight on anxiety, fear and overcoming!

Julie Loos has been a good friend for some time now and she has so much wisdom and insight in overcoming fear and anxiety. She boldly and openly shares her story and isn't afraid to get real about the mess!

I've found the courage to face some of my own anxiety and find faith in the midst of fears because of her encouraging words. I hope you will too!

Have you ever realized fear began in The Fall?

Adam and Eve were in a close intimate relationship with God, and then they ate the fruit. God took care of all their needs, and He only required one thing. He demanded not eating from one tree. Adam and Eve believed in God perfectly until Satan questioned it. He created doubt in their minds, and they discarded God’s goodness.

Adam and Eve feared God was withholding something from them. They wanted to know all and be all like God was. Sounds like pride, doesn’t it?

What were they thinking?

Fear Causes Us To Lose Focus

How sad and shameful they felt. How could Adam and Eve do this to the God they loved? He had taken such good care of them, and they choose to disrespect Him. Sound familiar?

Can you imagine the buckets of sweat drenching their remorseful bodies as they hid from Him?

The Creator of the Universe caught them red-handed. It was no longer a perfect relationship. Sin messed up complete intimacy with God and with others.

The devil likes to play his part in anxiety too, creating darts of fear, doubt, and shame. We feel many of these emotions in our lives because of sin. Hopelessness, fear, and doubt were not present before the fall into sin.

The Current Culture

Anxiety is increasing because day by day we are moving farther from God. Culture likes to believe whatever it feels at the particular time, and the Bible isn’t the foundation any longer. It seems like society is crumbling and fingers are pointed in all directions.

We know the truth though, God isn’t the foundation anymore. We aren’t following what the Bible says about fear and how to conqueror it.

The media can spin us all into anxiety. We fear for our lives, our kids’ lives and the generations to come. However, sometimes this anxiety takes our minds a little too far and we begin to isolate ourselves from life.

When we’re struggling with overwhelming tension, it’s easy to believe we are all alone in our struggles.  The reality is fear and strain have been plaguing humans since the Garden of Eden.  It was a stronghold on many in the past and it’s a stronghold on many now.

Does it give you a little reassurance knowing others share in your suffering?

What Does The Bible Say About Fear?

Throughout the Bible, you can find incidents of anxiety: Jehoshaphat, Moses, David, and many others are in the crowd of anxiety sufferers.

We need to remember God doesn’t allow us to suffer without His help. God gives us His words and wisdom in the Bible to traverse these seasons. He is bringing us closer to the image we had before the Fall into sin.

David found himself in many of these such seasons.

He used prayer to ease his anxiety. He would bear out his soul to God, and God gave peace.

Heartfelt prayers become anxiety’s remedy.

God Can Still Use Even When We Are Fearful

God used David in spite of his fear. He became a line in the genealogy of the Savior.

When you feel as though God couldn’t use you because of anxiety, can I ask you to read in Psalms?

God uses the most unlikely people for His glory, even you be used by Him if you put your trust in Him.

Recall what God has done through these individuals because even with anxiety, they put trust in Him.

• Moses led 600,000 Israelites.
• Jehoshaphat reigned and accumulated great wealth.
• David was a triumphant warrior, king, wrote many of the Psalms, and became a member of Jesus family tree.

Anxiety didn’t have the final say, God did.

God Has The Power Over Fear

God will use you, and he will use this tension to refine you. As this shaping and remaking is taking place, remember God’s promise of presence. He will lead and protect you. God doesn’t leave you alone in the battle with anxiety.

His hand and yours are intertwined.

But when I am afraid,

I will put my trust in you (Psalm 56:3, NLT).

I just want to encourage you. You are not alone. Anxiety isn’t new, and many have battled with it. You are so much stronger than your fear. You have hope and God on your side.

My prayer for you:

Dear Heavenly Father- Thank you for letting me come to you when I’m struggling. Please ease this troubled mind and body. Let me draw closer to you in the midst of this anxiety. Show me the positive from this strain. Soften my heart and lead me to others who need encouragement during their anxious moments! Your child, Amen.

7 Scriptures to Help You Overcome Fear

Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

Isaiah 35:4

Say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.”

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Matthew 6:34

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Psalm 23:4

Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

Psalm 34:4

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears.