Guest Post by Author Kelly Balarie
Fear is a repeating theme in my life, as you can probably imagine. In fact, I talked about it just yesterday on my new Facebook Live Show: No Makeup Mondays. I’ll explain more about that later, but you can check it out on my Facebook Page. Anyhoo, when I heard about Kelly Balarie’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears, I knew I needed to take a closer look. And I needed to invite her to sit down with us and sharing some of her best fear-fighting words. Please welcome my new friend, Kelly.
My mind raced 100-miles an hour. All I could think as I laid, dead weight on my bed, was what I should have done differently the past 24 hours. That – and everything bound to go wrong come tomorrow. It’s no wonder I couldn’t fall asleep.
I replayed my actions, my inactions and every infraction, sizing up their likelihood to come back to bite me. Surely, they’d be bigger, badder and larger the next day, more likely to inflict harm. They’d return with a vengeance. I could almost see it all play out: the wars, the pain, my tears, people hurt, things breaking down and my emotions walking the thin wire of “I am not sure I am going to make it.”
I wanted to turn off the TV of my mind and go to sleep, yet, once mesmerized by fear, there’s no shutting it off. It blares, talking in ways you hate.
What do you fear in the middle of the night as you lay your head on your pillow?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed fear leaves me breathlessly scared. I’m filled with constant thoughts about myself and gnawing worry. I’m bound to fail. I must keep myself safe. I can’t allow anyone to get hurt.
Yet, in the midst all these thoughts, I find there is one thought that gets me somewhere. If I am constantly walking the tightrope of fear, anxiously seeking perfection in all I do, I can’t as easily fall into the soft hands of grace.
My mind considers this: If I am willing to fall – let go, unwind, give it to God, untether my mind – might I have the opportunity to be caught up in God’s angst-quenching love?
If I soften my tight muscles, will I finally relax? If I forgo my disaster plan, might I enter God’s glorious one? If I take a risk of faith, could I unintentionally enter God’s great?
I’m inspired, certainly. But, could I? Could I actually do this?
Allow myself to trust the Maker and Creator of the earth? Allow him to handle the people I can’t change? To show me I’m more than enough? To figure out what I can’t? To soothe my talking head?
The more I ponder this idea, the more I am reminded:
Peace waits.
It’s always there and it is always mine to grab. It’s yours too. Jesus left it, like breadcrumbs, so we can find our way. We simply hand over our internal war and receive it.
I suppose, it’s kind of simple.
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. {John 14:27}
And, with this thought, and the truth that God’s power to move mountains is far greater than mine – I find myself at rest.
In the here and now, I can believe in grace. I can trust God will catch me. I can rest in the fact God will make things right – in his timing.
I can go to sleep.
Author and speaker, Kelly Balarie didn’t always fight fear – for a large part of her life, she was controlled by it. Yet, in her book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears, with God, Kelly charts a new course. Join Kelly as she leans on the power of God, rests on the shoulder of Christ, and discovers how to glow in the dark places of life. Get all Kelly’s blog posts by email, visit her on her blog, Purposeful Faith. Or, join her 4 Days to Fearless Challenge!
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What keeps you from sleep? How can you take one step toward trusting that God will catch you? You must leave a COMMENT to be entered to win a FREE COPY of Kelly’s new book Fear Fighting! [/reminder]
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