Thursday's Thoughts: Living With Fear

 

 

 

Image courtesy/Of Sound Mind And Spirit

 

 

 

When I was a young minister's wife and new mother, I suffered from
  a serious case of low self-image and overcautiousness.  Perhaps, more
accurately, I could have been called fearful and anxious. It was very
difficult for me to speak to a group of more than seven or eight ladies.

When asked to speak, I would often hide behind my husband's ministerial cloak
  and say that he was the speaker and I was his "helpmeet".  Mainly because I
 was fearful that I would make a mistake and not be accepted by my listeners,
I would refuse an invitation to speak to adults. I was only comfortable working

with children in church school and in the music department of our church.

 

In my heart I admired those who were poised in public and could speak articulately,
and often I longed to be able to do so myself. But the more I thought about it, the
greater my fear. This anxiety affected other areas of my life as well. I knew that
sooner or later I would have to face this fear head-on. After seventeen years
 as a minister's wife, I came to realize that I did not have to continue like this. 
Living with fear was a choice I was making. 

 

While attending a church school conference at beautiful Forest Home Christian Camp
 in California, God used Dr. Henry Brandt, a Christian psychologist, to minister His
 truth to me. Dr. Brandt used 2 Timothy 1:7 as his text, and that day, for the first time,
 I began to realize that my fears and anxieties were self-imposed.

 

God's choice for me was to have power, love, and self-discipline. God did not give
me a spirit of fear!  My poor self-image, my anxieties, my fears were all my own
doing and my sin because I lacked faith to receive the power, love, 
and self-discipline that God really wanted me to have. 

 

 As God began to help me with my fearfulness, my own self-image began to improve.
Over a period of weeks, and then months, it began to be obvious that God was changing me.

Now, many years later, I can say, "Thank You, Lord" for what He has done in me. 
I would not want to go back to the former Beverly for anything in the world- 
and the greatest thing is that God is not finished with me yet!

 

 

"Living With Fear"
Beverly LaHaye
(1929-2024)
Founder of Concerned Women for America
Wife of Pastor Tim LaHaye (1926-2016)

 

NIV Women's Devotional New Testament
With Psalms And Proverbs  
With Daily Devotions For Godly Women
(1993)
Zondervan