It was Easter Sunday. I had attended a wonderful service at our church celebrating the Resurrection of Christ, and I had a great time with family later in the day. I felt like it was the end to a really wonderful Easter weekend.
But once I went to bed that night, something had changed.
I couldn’t rest well. I was in and out of sleep. And every time I woke up, I felt such a heaviness in my mind and spirit. It was a weight of anxiety and fear that I have not felt in years.
One by one, reasons that I should be worried started playing like a movie in my mind….
I shouldn’t visit my friend out of town because what if I have car trouble and I’m all alone on the side of the road?
What if my children have really difficult challenges in life and what will happen to them when they are on their own?
What if my health takes a turn and I experience a sudden serious illness or death?
I’m not kidding, scenario after scenario started to play in my mind. And because I was half asleep, I felt like I couldn’t consciously control the thoughts that were coming.
After a few hours being half asleep and struggling through my thoughts, I remembered the scripture I used to have my children repeat out loud when they were afraid at night.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)
That night, I mustered all the strength I had to repeat that verse out loud….”God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.” I remember saying it twice out loud. And just like an anesthesiologist asks a patient to count down from 10….that was the last thing I remembered.
The next sound I heard was my alarm clock in the morning. When I awoke, the heaviness was completely lifted and what I experienced just a few hours before seemed like a bad dream.
I wondered why this would hit me after such a wonderful weekend celebrating the resurrection of my Lord? I realize that no matter how great things are going, I believe we have a real enemy that seeks to steal our joy and peace.
The whole incident personally reminded me that there is so much power to the word of God. It is truly alive and active and it goes to work when we speak it out loud and it is released into the atmosphere.
Are in you a place of heaviness because of your circumstances or because of thoughts that seem to uncontrollably flood your mind? Take out your Bible and start speaking God’s word into your atmosphere.
HIS WORD CHANGES THINGS.
Read it as often as you can. Write it down and put it where you can see it. Commit it to memory. Use it against your anxious thoughts. And just as I did, I know you will experience for yourself just how powerful it really is.
~ Vijoy
