Category Archives: fear

Laying Hold of Victory – Living a life of Faith (Prayer 1)

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Victory over Fear, Unbelief, Anxiety, Worry, People Pleasing

(Originally Written October 4, 2023 for WOW — Women on Wednesdays Ministry)

Father,

I come to you as your beloved daughter that you have adopted into Your family knowing that by Your Spirit, I can call out to you as my “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:14-15) I know I can trust You because I know that You love me, and there is nothing that can separate me from that love.  There is no fear of death or fear in life because I know you are always with me.  There is no spiritual power- no angel, or demon that can tear me apart from You and Your love.  Nothing in the present or the future can divide me away from You.  No powers, no height or depth, or anything in all of creation can isolate me away from Your love, God, that is in Jesus Christ my Lord. (Romans 8:37-39) I can rest in this confidence!

I am assured that God is working in all things that I face now or in the future. God is working for my good and His glory because I love Him and am called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

It is Your precious and perfect love for me, Your will to good for me, that casts out all fear that comes against me. (1 John 4:18) I am not subject to anxiety or worry because I know you are my Rock, my Fortress, and My Deliverer! You are the God I take refuge in. (Psalm 18:2)   When the enemy comes in like a flood you raise up a standard against him. (Isaiah 59:19) He will not win!  You are victorious! And You have given me victory over fear, unbelief, anxiety, worry, and people pleasing because I love you and I keep your commands.  I am born of God, and I overcome the world. You have given me faith.  I believe in You, Jesus the Son of God. (1 John 5:3-5)

When fear tries to attack my mind, I call out to you God because you are my Help! (Psalm 18:6) When anxiety and worry try to drown me in their torrent, You reach down from on high and pull me out! (Psalm 18:16) When unbelief speaks lies in my ears, I will praise You alone my God because you establish a stronghold against my enemies and you silence the voice of my foe, the liar, Satan! You alone will I serve and worship with my whole heart and you alone will I long to serve, fear of man, people pleasing, has no hold on me!  (Luke 4:8)

I fix my mind and my eyes on you alone God.  I will not follow any voice of torment because I know Your voice, God, and follow You alone! You are my Good Shepherd.  You take care of me and love me greatly!  I am trusting that though the thief wants to steal, kill, and destroy, You have come to give me abundant and full life! (John 10:4-5, 10) I submit myself to You alone! I depend on You alone! I obey You alone! I am assured that I can rest in Your care and Your love! (Psalm 23)

In the precious name of Jesus, I pray!

Amen

Verse to commit to memory:

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”

Isaiah 26:3-4 NIV

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The Romans Challenge: Overflow!

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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We were not created to dwell in anxiety, fear, and depression!

Long ago, in the Garden of Eden, mankind was created to dwell connected to God. We were made to be His image bearers, reflecting all that He is to our world. When sin entered, that connection was broken and that image was shattered. However, Jesus came!

Jesus came to set us free from sin and to enable us to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives the moment we receive the New Life Jesus came to give us! The Holy Spirit empowers us to live according to our original design as “image bearers” of God.

Our God is a God of Peace. Our God is a God of joy. Our God is a God of hope! By the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, we can be filled to overflowing with His peace, joy, and hope! Yet so many of us do not live our lives this way…

I know this from experience. For years, I lived as a Christian full of anxiety, fear, and depression… I tried in my own power, using man’s ways, to fix the way I felt. All of these attempts ended in failure. Until, I determined that I needed to truly surrender EVERY area of my life to God. I decided that I would pursue Him above all things, and live my life focused on Him!

How is this even possible? By the power of the Holy Spirit! By faith in God and His Word, i.e. trusting in Him!

I was living my life focused on me. I was very me-centered! God made us to live our lives focused on Him. Our thoughts are to be focused on Him and His Word. Our speech is to reflect that focus — speaking His truth and His life regarding ourselves, our circumstances, our families, etc. Our actions will fall into line as our focus is laser focused on God and His Word!

Here is the truth of what we all need… We need to live our lives with this motto: Less of me…More of Him! When we overflow with the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will experience what we were created to be all along: People who dwell with hope— a confident expectation of good; People who trust Him — believe that God said it, I believe it, that settles it; People who live with joy, — an emotion that is excited by the expectation of good; People who live with peace — freedom from disturbance or agitation.

Holy Spirit we ask You to fill us up til we overflow with You!

“Everything is Possible” Devotion Written for WOW Ministry

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“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:23-24 NIV

The internal struggle I was having was beyond what I can describe in a few words. Every Wednesday morning during the 2021 spring semester of WOW, I would pull into the parking lot and contemplate walking into the building. Every week as I sat in that parking lot I would hear the voices of the enemy speaking to me. This is what I heard those voices saying, “Don’t go in! They don’t like you. Wait until they hear what you have done.” But deep within my spiritual heart I knew that I needed to hear the Truth that was being spoken.

In God’s strength, I got out of my Jeep and walked through the doors of the church. As I sat in the auditorium and listened to the Word being spoken, I began desiring a deeper relationship with God. I took the WOW bookmark with the weekly verses and did what I was encouraged to do. Every morning I took out my Bible and I read the verse for the week. I read the verses that came before it and the verses that followed.  It wasn’t much, but those short portions of Scripture were planted into my heart like a tiny seed.

The Word of God is powerful to do a mighty work of strengthening a man’s faith, no matter how small that faith might be! As I took God’s Word into my heart and believed it, the Holy Spirit began strengthening my faith. As my faith was strengthened, my heart began to change. Three years later, I am not the person I was in 2021 — angry, bitter, fearful, and anxious. I no longer continually live in anger, bitterness, fear, and anxiety. I now live by faith in God and as a result am experiencing abundant life. Just like Jesus said, “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

The verses this week come from a conversation between Jesus and a desperate father who had a son tormented by demons. This man recognized his need and came to Jesus seeking a cure. He had taken a very important step of faith, to come and ask the One who is able to do all things.

Faith is the spiritual gift of God that is required to live a life worthy of the calling a believer receives. Faith attaches us to God. It is the all-important channel through which the abundant provision of God’s heart flows into our hearts – His power, His holiness, His love, His mercy, His grace, His wisdom, His righteousness, His joy, His peace, and so much more. Faith enables man to be one with the invisible God, to hear Him when He speaks, to understand what He is saying, and to obey.

The foundation of faith is God and His Word. Jesus spoke words of truth to the father when he said, “Everything is possible for him who believes” (Mark 9:32). Jesus was saying, believe in me, for I can do all things. The father heard what Jesus said and responded by exclaiming, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” This father heard the spoken Word of Jesus, believed what Jesus said, and deliverance was accomplished for his son.

It is faith that enables you and me to trust and have complete confidence in God and in His Word. Faith enables us to believe that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. Our role is to receive His Word into our hearts and believe that every Word of God is right and true no matter what we are experiencing.  As we believe in God’s character, His promises, and in His commands our faith will be strengthened, and we will live in abundance and power.

God has given us the gift of faith. He desires us to live by faith in Him not in our own understanding, reasoning, self-effort, intellect, sight, or feelings. Faith in Him is required to live a life worthy of the calling we have received from Him. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. May we come to God acknowledging our need and believing that “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

This week’s song is once again, “Take You at Your Word” By Cody Carnes and Benjamin William Hastings.  May the lyrics be an encouragement to us to read and listen to the Word of God and to act upon it in faith!

Love,

Janet Nelson,

Devoted and Determined

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We Stand Between Two Offers

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Make no mistake about it, we were made to receive. We will accept what is offered to us by one of two choices what God gives freely to us or what the world gives with a price we cannot afford to pay. To not choose God will by default be a choice to receive from the world. We will either know God in intimate relationship, or we will know the world and its ways in a destructive relationship with it, being shaped by its influence and receiving only what it gives.

Jesus spoke of the choice that we all must make and the fruits of that choice:

”“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”“ John 16:33 NIV
”The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.“ John 10:10 ESV

Jesus offers us a life filled with peace and life. The world offers us a life of trouble far from the relationship with our Creator, God, for which we are designed. What the world offers us will steal from us and destroy us. Ultimately it will kill us. Anything short of a living in a vibrant relationship with God is a life filled with death, darkness, and destruction.

It is important to take a look at what you are experiencing in your life. We can see that God created us for experience. He gave us our senses to hear, see, touch, taste and smell. He also has given us our spiritual senses to understand and know the things we cannot with our five outward senses. What are you experiencing within yourself? What you are experiencing reflects who you are receiving from.

If your life is a life of turmoil within— anger, anxiety, bitterness, fear, etc. You are being robbed from. You are being destroyed. Your connection with God is at the very least clogged, if not non existent making it impossible to receive from your loving Creator, God.

If your life is a life of peace, joy, and love. You are connected and receiving from God. You are experiencing a close relationship with the giver of all good things.

We have been given a choice of whom we will receive from. May our hearts long for a pure and free flowing connection to the one who generously gives life to those who will receive it, Jesus!

“The King Has Set Me Free”

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“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.”Psalms 40:1-3 NIV

I often find myself very aware of my ability to jump into a pit feet first, with no regard for the repercussions. I am keenly aware of all the times I’ve made poor decisions, bad choices, and willingly disregarded the truth of scripture in order to go my own way. The truth be known, I have been really good at ending up in a pit of sin. I have also been the queen of beating myself up for those bad choices for the rest of my life… Regret, guilt, and shame have known me well…

Recently I have been contemplating a series of poor choices I made during my early adult years. Today, I heard the Lord tell me, “Janet, you’re really good at concentrating on your power to get into a pit, and ignoring My power that has pulled you out!” How true that is!

This morning I am sitting on my East facing upper deck awaiting the sunrise. It hit me, I live in more blessings than my young adult mind could have ever conceived. Yes, I have lived many years dwelling in the pit of fear, anxiety, and torment. But today I am free! I don’t have to go back and revisit the pits I’ve willingly jumped into. I don’t need to try to figure out how I fell in, how deep the different pits were, and what all the long standing effects of dwelling there are. I simply need to sing the “new song of praise” He has put in my mouth.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 NIV

It is enough to rejoice in the freedom I now live in and leave all the chains behind! I’m free!

Steal, Kill Destroy

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I had an awesome conversation with my niece Emily yesterday regarding evil. That conversation and a prayer request for a man who was contemplating and then eventually took his life yesterday has been on my heart this morning. So as usual what’s on my heart gets pecked out by my fingers in writing:

“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).”
‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

One of the biggest deceptions of Satan is to get us to thinking that he isn’t that big of a deal or that he doesn’t even exist. We need to be aware of his existence and we need to know his purpose!
Satan’s main purpose and goal is to steal from us, to kill the life that God has given us, and to destroy our lives. It is what occupies every thought in his mind and every action he takes. He hates God and since we are the ones God loves so much, he hates us!
We NEED to be aware that we have an enemy, and this enemy will go to great lengths to destroy our lives and to lead us to death, darkness, and destruction.
Satan is a liar. That is how he communicates. Nothing but lies stream from his mouth. His ability to lie is like none other, because he makes his lies sound like truth. He is the great deceiver His lies are believable. They seem like they are what we should be following. They appeal to our self- life, who we are without God’s new heart He gives us. His lies are a constant attack on the TRUTH. The Truth is the Word of God.
We will live our lives constantly beat up by his onslaught as long as we refuse to follow God wholeheartedly and we refuse to be in relationship with God through prayer and taking in His Word, the Bible.
Consider where you are in your relationship with God. Are you close to God? If you are not, you are susceptible to the attacks of the evil one. You will experience the loss caused by satan’s stealing from you. You will experience the death of goodness in the situations you come against. Your life will be destroyed.
Jesus offers us differently. Jesus said He came that we would have abundant life.
We choose.
(More on this later)

Free and In My Right Mind! Mark 5:1-10

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I love this account of Jesus setting the man free from many demons that tormented him. This man lived away from his family in a graveyard and was deeply tormented. The people tried to subdue him but he broke the chains they used and was violent.

But NO Mental torment by the demonic is too big for Jesus. With a word Jesus cast them out. This is what I love about the story: 

“When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.” Mark 5:15 NIV

This man had a reputation for being CRAZY! But when Jesus stepped in he was freed from the demonic spirits that tormented him. He was in his right mind!

Around three years ago I was living a life tormented by anxiety and fear. I had been for years. I tried everything I could think of to fix it until I came to the end of me and my ways letting God do it. Jesus stepped in and He has set me free! Although I haven’t ran around a graveyard naked and cut myself with stones like this man(For that we can all thank God), I know what it felt like to have my mind out of control. Now I testify to you I know what it is like to sit at the feet of Jesus free from that torment and in my right mind! Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever! He still changes us and sets us free from torment when we come to Him!

That is Good News!!!

“Hell lost another one! I am free!!”

Thoughts on John 3 – Come into the Light

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Awesome chapter! Well worth reading the entire chapter. There are some very famous words that start in verse 16.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The words that are standing out to me today are in verses 19-21. 

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In Jesus, there is no reason to hide in the darkness of shame. We are free to come out into the light so that all we have done can be exposed to it. Shame makes that a scary thing. God wants us to have it out in the open so that we can repent of the wrongs we have done and be healed and set free.

There is no fear in letting God’s light shine into the hidden parts of us. His light is full of love and healing. He is our Good and Loving Heavenly Father who wants the best for us, Freedom!

Christmas in Luke (Day14)

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Today’s reading is Luke 14.

The setting in today’s chapter is a meal at the house of a prominent Pharisee, a religious leader of Jesus time. Jesus sat and watched as the guest came in looking for seating in prominent places. They wanted recognition and positions of power with the affluent in the room. It is at this point Jesus tells a parable about a “Great Feast, “ a feast much like the kingdom of God.

A man sent out invitations to a great feast he was giving, but everyone he asked had excuses for why they could not come. So the man told his servant to go and invite the “rejects”, “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” (Verse 21) He also instructs the servant to go “to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in…” (verse 23) The man throwing the feast wanted his house to be full.


Our loving Heavenly Father is like this man. The invitation to His Heavenly banquet was sent years ago, on a dark night, in a Bethlehem Stable. Jesus came inviting the ones rejected- the poor in spirit; those crippled by fear and pain; those blinded by sin; those lame, unable to stand in His presence. He calls to the “roads and country lanes” ,the out of the way, lonely places, “Come!” He longs for His house to be full!

For this I am so grateful. I am all of the people Jesus invited- I am the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. I am the one who could not come to the banquet had it not been for Jesus inviting sinners to come!

The first Christmas shows us a glimpse of the God who would go to great lengths to see His house full of guests delighted and fulfilled at His banquet. Our God came to be His invitation, with us- Emmanuel. He prepared the way for us to go to the banquet by His sacrificially dying on the cross, and victoriously rising from the grave. May we hear the invitation declared to us so many years ago at His birth, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.” Luke 2:14.


His favor is upon us! His invitation has been sent! May we drop any excuse for not attending His feast and RSVP with Him replying “Yes! I come!”

“I Will Rise”

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Every once in a while, a memory of hard, traumatic, unexplainable events of the past will raise its ugly head inside of me. It tends to rock me to the core. Sometimes taking a while to get my mind off of it.

Today I was reading in Luke 24:1-12. It is the account of Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary Mother of James going to the tomb of Jesus to put burial spices on His body. They find He isn’t there. Suddenly, Angels appear and one says “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” This phrase resounds in my heart today. The women had seen some of the most traumatic events of a brutal death of a loved one. They surely were processing what had happened trying to make sense. But they were instructed that there wasn’t anything there for them in the dead things of the past. Jesus was living! He wasn’t in the past He has risen!

Whatever we have walked through that was hard, painful, and death to us is not where Jesus is. He has risen!! He is not in the dead things of the past. He is alive now and forever more!

The song “I Will Rise” by Bethel has been on my play list this week. This morning has been a morning that I have it on repeat. It speaks of what I read in Luke. 

“Beyond the burial, there's a resurrection
Your will be done in me
Oh-oh, Let my roots go deep
And I will rise, I will rise
He holds the time that I will rise”

Jesus calls us out of our graves of the past to stand in the present with Him! “I will Rise! God through my life be lifted high!” We have no time to be looking intently into the graves of our lives! Jesus is not there! The living life of Christ cannot be found in the graves of failure and pain! He is risen and we are seated with Him in the heavenly places of His victorious Kingdom! I will rise! Let Jesus rise in me!