Victory Over Worry

February 19, 2018

“You see, being a Christian does not mean that you won’t need to fight any battles. You are now a strategic target for the enemy. One of the most successful weapons of the devil is worry. To be a conqueror in that battle, you have to learn to listen to what the Bible says about fighting the enemy.”

Corrie ten Boom

When I think about what happened in this woman’s life I am astonished that she could write these words.

I have been studying the life of Corrie ten Boom. The Lord gave me the idea for a play that He wants me to write. It revolves around the life of this dear saint. I have been reading as many books as I can about her life. I also watched the movie The Hiding Place. I cried through the movie and many times in her writings my eyes mist over with what she experienced and the wisdom and knowledge she learned from her trials and tribulations.

My love for this dear woman arose several years ago when we were on our 6-month journey across the country. We listened to many audio books. The Hiding Place was one of the first ones we listened to. I remember there was silence in the car during the entire 10 hours it took us to complete the book. I remember sobbing when Betsie died. There were many times in the story that I cried. I could hear sobs from the back of the van as we listened to the story. If you have never read or listened to her story I suggest you do so.

From that time on I desired to read as much as could that was authored by her. She has written many books. Books about the time in her life before she was sent to the concentration camp. She wrote a book that was a collection of letters she wrote from prison. She also several books about the path the Lord led her on after she was released from the concentration camp. I believe she wrote about 25 books in total.

I am trying to read all of them. I have read:

The Hiding Place

Tramp for the Lord

Clippings From My Notebook

In My Father’s House

I am currently reading Reflections of God’s Glory (where all todays quotes from Corrie come from) and plan on picking up Prison Letters after that.

I want to make sure that I know all I can about this strong woman before I start writing my play. It makes me think back to all the effort we put into the things of this life. We research things and study things and make sure that we are prepared for projects that are due and tests to take and meetings we have for work.

I know that being a director at STP this year how much time I am spending on preparing for the production. I have heard of others who have worked on projects like plays and books and how much time and effort they spend on their pursuits.

The question I ask is am I spending the same amount of time on my relationship with Jesus Christ? Am I putting forth the same effort into my walk with Jesus Christ as I am into the play I am directing? My time with Jesus should be more. My walk with Him should be the main priority of my life.

I know that as women we tend to wear many hats. Some of us are wives. Some are mothers. Some want with all their hearts to be one or the other or both. Some of us work jobs outside the home and some of us don’t. Some of us homeschool our children while others have the arduous task of helping their kids navigate the public school or private school waters with all that goes along with that. We are each at different stages of our lives. Each of us struggle differently.

I know at this stage in my life I am trying to balance being a wife, mother, and daughter of parents who are beginning to need my help more. I no longer have babies that I am nursing but I have 8 kids ranging in age from 6 to 19. Two of my sons and I are navigating the waters of a new kind of relationship that comes from children moving to adulthood. Life keeps moving and changing.

The one thing though I think that all women have in common is the temptation to allow worry to overwhelm us and steal our joy. This is what Corrie was talking about. Worry is one of the Devil’s most used tools to discourage women and make us ineffective for the Lord.

I know for me I start to think about all the things I should have done for my kids. Am I failing them by homeschooling them? Are they prepared enough for the real world? Are they going to make the right decisions? What if they walk away from the Lord? What if my 8-year old never learns how to read proficiently? What am I going to make for dinner tonight? How are we going to pay all the bills we have? What is my dad does not get better? What if my 17-year old has to live with the pain he has for the rest of his life? What if my husband loses his job? What if the car breaks down?

You get the picture. Any of that sound familiar? These are the things I dwell upon during the watches of the night and any time that my focus is not on the Lord. Worry creeps in and does its dirty work in my soul.

So how do we fight the enemy? The thing I love about Corrie is she always points us back to scripture. I cannot imagine the horrors that Corrie watched while she was in prison and the concentration camp. She had to watch her sister die and atrocities done to women. How did she keep from worrying? How was she able to keep from falling into despair? What helped her defeat the enemy and fight and win the battle to not worry?

The word of God! What she had memorized and the Bible she the Lord miraculously provided for her in the prison and camp. Great story involving fleas and lice.

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

She said, “If the Bible is true – and it is true! – fear, worrying, and anxiety actually question the trustworthiness of God.” She called worry, fear, and anxiety for what it truly is. SIN!!!

“Worry is carrying tomorrow’s burdens with todays strength.” What a powerful reminder she gives us here. I only have strength for what happens today. I do not have the strength for what is going to happen tomorrow or next week. The Lord makes sure that he gives us just enough strength for what he knows we will have to face today.  It makes me think of Lamentations 3:22-23.

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

My desire is to trust God implicitly. To believe all his promises. I want to have a strong faith that points others to Jesus. I want to have the JOY that comes from Jesus flood my life and pour out into the lives of others.

I believe that there are several things that I can do to help overcome worry, fear, and anxiety. I believe that the Lord keeps showing me these things over and over again.

1.       Read the Bible every day. Not just read it to check off a list but really read it. Study it and meditate on it. Memorize it so I can carry it with me all the time and recall it when I most need it.

2.       Pray daily. Specific prayer at a specific time. Not just at meal times. But real meaningful communion with God. Getting honest about confession and repentance. Hard prayers that require a deep, heartfelt times with the Lord. Talking to the Lord about our struggles and our secret sins, which really aren’t a secret to him anyway.

3.       Thankfulness. Counting the goodness’s of the Lord. Every day dwelling on what He has done for us. Allowing the blessings that he has given us to be in the forefront of our minds. Physically write them down again and again. Get very specific with what the Lord has blessed you with, even the hard things. What Ann Voskamp calls the hard eucharisteos.

4.       Music. Good music that puts the focus on God. Sometimes for me it is soft piano music that soothes my soul. I love this when I am writing or playing softly in the background when I am reading. Sometimes it is Christian artists that write and perform music with lyrics that bring healing and comfort to my soul. A lot of times it is music that comes directly from scripture.

5.       Fellowship. I think this is the hardest one for me because it is in this area that I have the most worry. I know that I should be meeting with likeminded women during the week, not just on Sunday at church. We were designed to commune with others and teach others and encourage others. I have not wanted to do this because it means letting other women into the mess that is my life. I begin to worry about what they might think of me once they find out what I struggle with and what sins I commit. What is they do not like me or don’t agree with something I say or believe.

This is the one that I most struggle with but also the one that the Lord is convicting me about. He is working on me with all the others too. He is calling me to pray more and read my Bible more and give thanks more but fellowshipping more is tough. Especially since I have been hurt by other women before. I truly believe that meeting with other women and having them speak into my life and encourage me and me do the same for them is key to winning the battle over worry.

I am praying that the Lord would give me the courage to find more women to fellowship with and share with.
My desire is to win the battle over worry. I want to trust God and draw closer to Him so that I can live each day in His strength and not carry the burden of tomorrow or the worry of the “what ifs.”

“A person does not fall so much because of the troubles of one day, but if tomorrow’s burden is added, this load becomes very, very heavy. It is wonderfully easy to live just for the day.”

Corrie ten Boom lived through things that we can never even imagine and yet the Lord brought her through it one day at a time. If I trust Him as she did, I too can live one day at a time and have the strength I need to bring glory to Him on that day.

Then arise tomorrow and do it again. Always bringing glory to His name. All the days He gives me.