Well girls, I have a confession to make. I …am… terrified of spiders!! Well, really it’s tarantulas. My dear older sister lives out in the country, and every summer they have an influx of tarantulas on their property. Normally, I do not visit during the summer, but a couple of years back I happened to be there during the month of May. I thought that I would be a nice sister - for once :0) - and help with the dishes. It was a big pile of dishes, and when I got to the very bottom there was a little black measuring cup. So I scooped up that measuring cup and was washing away, when all of the sudden a humongous, hideous, and horrible tarantula crawled out onto my hand. Naturally, I hit the roof or according to my mother, who was watching nearby, I ran in place with my eyes closed (much like the roadrunner) for about 20 sec. That moment has scarred my brain for life! Well, maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but I doubt it! Maybe it’s not spiders for you; maybe its cockroaches or snakes. The point is that we all have things that we are afraid of. While some are silly, others can be quite serious.

Do you ever feel afraid of the future? Afraid of not knowing what is going to happen. Maybe you are afraid of losing your friends, and so you hold on to them too tightly. Or could you possibly be afraid of not being rapture ready? God does not want us to live in fear. In fact there is a very powerful scripture that speaks directly to feelings of fear. The Bible says in 2 Tim 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” I cannot count the number of times I have quoted this verse to myself. Sometimes at night when I have heard a strange noise and suddenly felt very afraid, I will lay in bed and quote it again and again; it ALWAYS works to remove my fear. Quoting scriptures aloud is an incredibly powerful tool that you can use in any situation where you are experiencing worry or anxiety. Oh yeah, worry and anxiety are just other names for fear.

In my mind, I can see the classic Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown is trying to tell Lucy what he is afraid of. She questions him about all sorts of things, and finally comes to the conclusion that he is afraid of everything! Did you know there are some people in this world that are so crippled with fear, they cannot even leave their homes. Surely this is not what God intended for their lives. The devil wants us to be so consumed with fears that we forget about what our mission is- to reach a lost and dying world with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Below are a few of my favorite scriptures that I like to say aloud when I am feeling afraid. The next time you are feeling fearful about something, quote these scriptures, and see how quickly your fears are relieved!

Deuteronomy 31:6 Philippians 4:8

Phillippians 4:19 I John 4:18

*By the way my sister has never before and never since had a tarantula in her sink! Yikes, it was after ME!