Sunday, March 27, 2005

Is Fear Sin?

by Donna L. Watkins

© Donna L. Watkins - Adult Garter Snake
One of the steps I've taken on my journey to wellness is that I spent most of a day writing down the Scriptures from the various areas that "cause" my health problems (fear, abandonment, anxiety, etc.) so that I can renew my mind one cell (mene) at a time. (More understanding on menes and how you renew your mind is derived from the book, "A More Excellent Way," by Pastor Henry Wright.)

During part of my Quiet Time, I've been in a workbook called, "A Woman's Heart - God's Dwelling Place," by Beth Moore. It's amazing how God will tie so much together for you when you begin seeking His Truth on something.

The author was presenting the Lord, your Healer - Jehovah Rapha. She talked about the wilderness and the bitter water of Marah. She wrote, "The people could have come down with diseases, and He could've performed a mass healing. Instead, He introduced Himself as Jehovah-Rapha by demonstrating His power over the most common disease from which His children would suffer - bitterness.

Bitterness is a spiritual cancer, a rapidly growing malignancy that can consume your life. After it consumes the soul, it begins to eat away at the body. It is so contagious that we can pass it to our children, who are often oblivious to the source of their bitterness.

"No amount of distractions or busywork - not even church work - can treat this spiritual disease. Countless Christians mask their pain with unceasing activity. Bitterness cannot be ignored but must be healed at the very core, and only Christ can heal bitterness. No one can do it for you, and no one can tell you exactly what is required for your healing. Others can direct you to Jesus, but you must show up for your appointments. His ultimate goal is not simply for you to be healed, but for you to meet the Healer."

It amazed me that she talked about bitterness and cancer, and busyness, which is anxiety, and about passing it on to children.

It was after both my parents died that my health went downhill. Of course, I assumed, and rightly so, that the stress was the cause - two deaths in less than 6 months and the stress of caring for them as they deteriorated prior to death. I had just begun home schooling our ADHD son and my husband had to choose to lie or leave his job, so one month after my last parent died, he was out of work for a year.

Why does stress do this? Are we actually in sin by not obeying God? "Be anxious for nothing." That's a hard command.

What makes it worse to commit adultery than it is to worry or fear something? There's more Scriptures telling us to FEAR NOT than there are about adultery? Has anxiety become an acceptable sin because "everybody" is doing it?

If anxiety is sin and we have done it over and over again and are now even in the belief system that stress is just a common state, then we must ask ourselves: Did God tell us that it was okay to set up systems of worry?

I think of I Cor. 10:13 "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Just because it's common, doesn't mean we are supposed to fix it. God is available to take care of us, but we tend to have to do it ourselves because we don't trust Him.

I'm amazed at the rationalization so many Christians have given me in a discussion on cell phones and fear. They may be in debt and miserable because of it, but have to pay for the cell phone in case they break down and need to call for help. Where is God in this? What have people done for the past two thousand years when they needed help?

I'm not against cell phones for proper reasons, but how far do we drift in our faith and from any need of our Lord, our Healer, Provider, Savior, and all that He is. We want to be able to handle it all ourselves.

The same with disease - has man taken away another area that God wanted us to look to Him for? Each of us must dig deep to see the roots of the diseases that plague us and cut all ties that are rooted in fear and worry. We will see new light coming in because a previous belief system that God couldn't get through is being changed.

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All photos remain the property of Donna L. Watkins and may not be republished without written permission. You may forward or use this copyrighted article on a website if you include the following credit and an active link back to this site:
© 2000-2007 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission. Visit the author's website, TheNatureInUs.com for more articles and free email subscription. Link URL: http://www.TheNatureInUs.com

Thursday, March 17, 2005

The Path of Most Resistance

by Donna L. Watkins
© Donna L. Watkins - Little Blue Heron
 I am amazed at how easy it is to fall back into the mindset I've had for so many years which I now see to be the foundation for keeping me in poor health. It's like the ruts formed by moving water on a slope ... paths of least resistance. I am now used to having great energy and no muscle pain, so when I have a less than energetic day, I KNOW I've got some work to do and I begin to dig into my thoughts to find where I'm going down the wrong path.

I have determined to take the path of most resistance! Resistance to the false belief system I have held in my mind (which is part of my soul) which has kept my body in bondage. The Bible says that God "wishes above all things that we prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospers." Our soul is our mind, will and emotions. When they are not prospering in the Truth, then my body (physically) will not prosper. How aware I now am of how unprosperous my soul has been.

I read in Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest," a bit of wisdom: "All the Almighty God is ours in the Lord Jesus! And He will tax the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us if we will obey Him. What does it matter if external circumstances are hard? Why should they not be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we banish God's riches from our own lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out murmurings and our lives become craving spiritual sponges, there is nothing lovely or generous about them."

I think of those "spiritual sponges" he mentions as things that have soaked up all the evil that waited to gain entrance into my soul to torment me. All I had to do was grumble and complain, rather than to bless God anyway. How easy I take the good times in life, but how bruised I feel when things don't go the way I want them to. With that mindset I open doorways for the enemy to gain permission to torment me (as he got permission to do to Job). Job admitted that what he feared the most had come upon him, so he opened the doorway to his torment with fear.

Fear is sin, although we tend to think it's something that is simply part of our society - our time - our generation. I wonder if people feared taking that road to Jericho after hearing about the guy who had been robbed, beaten and left for dead and passed by people who refused to help.

"God is able to make all grace abound" and then when we have appropriated it, we have learned to lavish the grace of God on others. I am gathering up the grace available to me and determined to have it abound in my life as I move towards total health and freedom from disease.

Copyright and Reprint Information
All photos remain the property of Donna L. Watkins and may not be republished without written permission. You may forward or use this copyrighted article on a website if you include the following credit and an active link back to this site:
© 2000-2007 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission. Visit the author's website, TheNatureInUs.com for more articles and free email subscription. Link URL: http://www.TheNatureInUs.com

Monday, March 7, 2005

Missing Sleep

by Donna L. Watkins

© Donna L. Watkins - Male Mallard Duck
More than 35 million Americans suffer from long-lasting insomnia, with 20 to 30 million others experiencing shorter-term sleeplessness. One in four Americans takes some kind of medication for sleep. There is even a condition called, "Worry Insomnia."

Why are we missing so much sleep?

The Word tells us that we are to "be anxious for nothing" and yet we take precious time from our lives to worry over things that we have no control over. What use does worrying serve? None good!

Do you think all of the evil and chaos in the news means that God has left His throne? That he no longer protects us? No! God still holds the reins of this world where humans bring about so much destruction in their own and each other's lives.

God is still the Master! This should give you peace. Matthew 14:27 says, "Do not be afraid; just believe." (Mark 5:36) We must learn to trust in Him. I like this segment of a poem and it's a good one to keep by your bedside and to memorize if you have problems with sleeplessness:

"Tonight, my soul, be still and sleep;
God's hands will still the Tempter's sweep -
God's hands, not yours; be still and sleep."

It's true a lot of horrible things happen, and we do not understand them, and we certainly can't stop them even if we spend our lives worrying, but we can obey the Word given to us. We can trust in Him. We can believe that all things work for good in our lives if we love God. We can let our life in His hands and believe Him - He loves us - He knows best.

What is allowed into our lives is truly for our good, but we will not be comforted by this unless we believe He loves us. We must believe that at all times.

We love our children even when we have to discipline them. We know it hurts them - and it hurts us, but we know what training they need. We do it because we love them. If we don't do it, they become a problem for society and others around them. We do them good even though in their eyes [and little behinds] it seems bad.

Don't give into despair and worry. Rest in His peace. Jesus said in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." We must take it just as we do salvation. It's a gift. We can live and walk in peace, but we must choose it by believing.

The Adversary would love for us to worry our lives away, lose sleep and be physically and emotionally exhausted so there is no good fruit from us. Don't do it! Picture the devil when you lay awake worrying - he's laughing at your despair. Then look upward and see Jesus offering His peace to you.

Remember Proverbs 3:24, "When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet."

Consider these words from Madame Guyon: "Hopelessness constricts and withers the heart, rendering it unable to sense God's blessings and grace. It also causes you to exaggerate the adversities of life and makes your burdens seem to heavy for you to bear. Yet God's plans for you, and His ways of bringing about His plans, are infinitely wise."

Trust in Him. Even if there's nobody else in your life that you can trust, you can trust Him!

Copyright and Reprint Information
All photos remain the property of Donna L. Watkins and may not be republished without written permission. You may forward or use this copyrighted article on a website if you include the following credit and an active link back to this site:
© 2000-2007 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission. Visit the author's website, TheNatureInUs.com for more articles and free email subscription. Link URL: http://www.TheNatureInUs.com

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