Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ubuiquitous Enemy, Ubiquitous Fear



I’m writing a book about how to become a courageous mom and raise courageous children. I’m about 22,000 words into it. After I clear 25-30 thousand, I will work on diligently :0) finishing the proposal.

So it is a good project. A fulfilling project. But at times, a very difficult project.

I’ve been writing so much about fear that I seem to battling it more than usual these days. For about ten years, my life was filled with fear. Honest to goodness panic attacks in the middle of the night were common. Most of my terror was focused on something bad happening to my son. If you looked up “overprotective mother” on the internet, you would see a picture of me.

But God has given me tremendous victory in this area. In fact, my life has never been more peaceful. That is, until I started writing about fear.

It’s not that surprising. The enemy is after me. But God has provided weapons for me and I am a warrior woman! (I can almost hear Helen Reddy’s “I am Woman, Hear me Roar!” :0))

Don’t you love 2 Corinthians 10:4?

“The weapons we fight with are not like the world’s weapons. On the contrary, they have divine power in order to DEMOLISH strongholds!”

When I am attacked I use my weapons – praise, prayer, the Word of God and gratitude. Afterward, sometimes not immediately, I can almost sense the beeping noise one of those bulldozers makes when it backs up. Beep, beep, beep! And then CRUSH! God demolishes the fear and His courage fills me up.

The other day John, Noah and I were sitting in church and I put my arm around Noah and my hand on John’s knee. In that moment I was filled with gratitude. Here I sat physically touching my two most precious blessings.

And then Wham-o! Fear came whispering a few “What ifs?”

In church! Can you believe it? About that time the worship team starting singing and it was easy to praise God for His presence and His truth.

We each have those moments, don’t we? The enemy attacks us with fear no matter what setting. Join me and arm yourselves. Be ready to stand firm in battle.

And then wait for it. Wait for it….

Beep, beep, beep! CRUSH!!

11 comments:

Jan Parrish said...

Great imagery. I'll be praying for you.

Diane Marie Shaw said...

The enemy hates when we begin to expose his tactics and that is what you are doing with the writing of the book on fear. When we go into his camp to take back the things he has stolen from us we must be sure we go with the whole armor of God. Then we pick up our weapons and continue to press, not letting the enemy push us back one inch. Praise God we have the greater one within us.
Yeah God.
Diane

Lynn said...

I enjoy getting to know you better through these blogs. The first thing that came to mind reading this was how I felt I never really knew fear until I feared irrationally for my child. Without God, I don't how people deal with parenthood.

Cheryl Barker said...

You're right, Robbie. The enemy likes nothing better than to distract us from a task God has called us to do. Keep fighting the good fight!

p.s. I remember the Helen Reddy song well :)

Denise Miller Holmes said...

I like your weapons, Robbie. Praise, prayer, the Word of God and gratitude. I will remember them.

Robbie Iobst said...

Jan, I appreciate your prayers so much! Thanks for using your gift as a prayer warrior on my behalf!

Diane, AMEN and AMEN! :0) And thanks for the letter to God on your blog. So beautiful!

Lynn, It always helps to know that I am not alone in my battle against fear in motherhood. Thank you for your comment. If you have a blog, let me know how to get to it. :0)

Cheryl, I respect you so much having raised a passle of kids and lived to talk about it! :0) Thank you!

Denise, Thanks! I got praise, prayer and the Word of God from a suggestion by Joyce Meyer and I added gratitude cause it always helps me to stand firm against our enemy!

VJ Frost said...

You ARE courageous and we all miss you here in San Diego especially here at Horizon
Love & Blessings
Valerie Frost

Robbie Iobst said...

VAL!! I went to your blog - welcome to the blogosphere! Thank you for visiting my scribbling. I miss you and that beautiful San Diego weather! It's in the 30s right now. Brr!

VJ Frost said...

It's in the triple digets here today...Welcome to mild temperate San Diego. Ha! Praying for you and your awesome family!
Love
Val

Momstheword said...

Satan can't have our souls so he tries to destroy our character and faith. Years ago I started reading a book that exposes Satan's tricks. I got the Hong Kong flu and was really sick for a couple of weeks. A friend borrowed the book and started reading it and she got the Hong Kong flu! He doesn't want us to know those things about him.

tonya said...

Great post, Robbie. Your words bring me courage. :)