False Evidence Appearing Real

Boy do I feel silly…no, silly might not seem like a strong enough word. I feel stupid. Those of you that know me, know that I don’t get stressed about much. I think stress is a pointless emotion that just drains the joy out of a person and makes them miserable. Plus since misery loves company, stress seems to be contagious sometimes. So I’ve had plenty of things to get stressed about the last four years, but I found a little trick. I just pray the stress away and voila its gone. I pray something like “spirit of fear, anxiety, stress, you have no authority over me, be gone in Jesus name.” Its like a magic spell, the cloud just lifts almost immediately. This works for me 99 times out of 100. Well, this morning was that 1 out of 100 time. I prayed that prayer over and over yet the fear just was relentless. That fear was also irrational I just didn’t realize at the time. An acronym for FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. In hindsight Im pretty sure I was under spiritual attack. I was doing very well with my walk lately and the enemy saw a weak point and exploited it. I was nervous and stressed all day. I could barely get any work done. Fear absolutely stole all my joy. The good thing at lunch, I spent a great time in devotions and had an extended talk with God. God kept reassuring me that everything was going to be OK, but still I let myself drift back to worry. The thoughts were just pounding at me…so Im pretty sure it was a spiritual attack. The enemy comes to lie, steal, and destroy. Why, what is his purpose?; to steal our joy. So that is what was happening. My joy was being stolen right from under my nose.

I was productive at work somewhat, despite the emotional onslaught. Finally the thing that I was worried about all day long resolved itself. It was absolutely nothing, a bit like a mirage. As the vapor which appeared to be so real dissipated, I felt really stupid. God told me it was nothing, so why did I invest so much mental strain and emotional energy into it. The good thing is that this doesn’t happen to me often. Hopefully I’ll learn from this mistake. God is in absolute control. At a certain point, worry/stress can become a sin. It certainly detracts from our walk with God because how can you be joyful when you are stressed out. “The Joy of the Lord is our strength.” I let that get away from me. God told me the issue was nothing and it really was absolutely nothing. False Evidence Appearing Real. The good that came from all of this, is that God told me that since he told me this was going to happen all the other things that he spoke into my heart, and he spoke a lot of incredible things, were certainly going to come to pass as well. I was starting to doubt that a bit, but He encouraged me. It’s a weird thing that he has called me to do. God is directing my steps and he told me for my future he is going to set everything up, Im not supposed to do anything. In fact the more I do, the more I will slow the process up. “Don’t just do something, Stand there!” is the motto. My job (as is the job with most Christians) is to Seek First the Kingdom of God and All these things (every last detail) will be added unto you. If you think about it, that philosophy sure makes the life of a Christian pretty easy…no stress allowed.