Faith Over Fear

My husband recently competed in a weight lifting contest. When he told me the details about the contest, I was so excited for me and my boys to witness this event. When I asked my husband what time we had to leave, he informed me that he had to be at the event early, but I could come later on to see him when it was his time to lift. At first I was fine with driving ourselves and meeting him later, but then he told me where it was and I quickly wanted to change my mind. The contest was in Virginia and it required me to drive over a two lane very high bridge. My heart sank because I knew that met I had to drive over that bridge alone. You see I’d driven over the bridge before and nearly freaked out. My palms were sweaty and my breathing became very rapid. My heart was racing and I knew that I was having a panic attack. I was a wreck. I never wanted to experience that again. So in order to protect my emotions, I decided that I would just ride with him. I didn’t care how early we had to get up, I was going to make it happen. But then I started thinking about how unfair it would be to our boys. I was going to get them up at 5:30 am and have them sit until 10:00 am? Not only would that have been unfair, that would not have worked well with my 2 year old! I had to face my fear.

After dwelling on it and worrying about it, I knew that I needed to settle my mind. The only thing that settles me and gives me peace is prayer. I also did a lot of deep breathing when thinking about what was ahead of me. This may not be a big deal for others, but for me, all I had to do was think about driving over the bridge and I could feel the fear rising inside of me. But the Holy Spirit was right there to remind me of his word. 2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power of love and of a sound mind. The battle was really in my mind. My mind needed to be sound. I needed to ignore those thoughts and not give life to the fear that tried to rise inside of me. With God’s help and speaking God’s word, I started thinking reasonably and clearly about the whole situation. I needed to drive over the bridge, it was going to be okay, and nothing was going to harm me or my kids.

The phrase sound mind means a mind that has been delivered, rescued, protected and is now safe and secure. I began to speak God’s word over my situation. As the day arrived and I drove closer to the bridge, I reminded myself that I was not given the spirit of fear, but of power of love and of a sound mind. When I felt fear trying to take over my body, I continued to confess the word again and take deep breaths. Before I knew it, I was half way over the bridge. I could feel the excitement rising inside of me because the worst was behind me! One funny part was that when we got to the height of the bridge, my oldest son questioned how deep the water was. I thought, wow, Lord you are really stretching my faith 🙂 I calmly responded and continued my descend until I was off the bridge altogether.

We arrived safely to the event and saw my husband take first place in his class lifting 355lbs! The looks on my boys faces were priceless. To them, their dad is their real life Superman. That day, we were all winners. My husband met his goal, I conquered my fear and my boys witnessed the strength of their dad. I am so thankful that no matter what we are up against, God has our back and when we go inward and quiet our minds, He will give us a word that will free us from any bondage we may be experiencing. All we have to do is believe His word. Have faith in God and He will do the rest.