Fear causes stress, disrupts my sleep and pushes me to overeat. The anxiety of not knowing how a situation will turn out, leads me to imagine the worst possible outcome.  Instead of helping me feel better, this usually makes me worry more.  In the grip of emotional distress, I hit the pantry or refrigerator for something to ease my pain.  The truth is overeating salty snacks does nothing to calm my fear, but instead gives me stomach pain.  Instead of eating, I need to turn to God to help me face my fear.

Most of my fears are only exist because of my imagination. My most likely stress related eczema is flaring up. The itching is worse than before, so I googled symptoms of shingles.   Luckily, I do not have all the symptoms, so I can cross shingles off my list of worries.  I have a new work responsibility that is taking time and effort to learn, and creating stress. This new task is something I am passionate about and enjoy doing, but I would rather worry about how I will get it done.   Finally, when my mind can’t take any more stress, I start working on the first step, continuing until I complete what needs to be done.  For today, I leaned on God and in Him found strength to not overeat.  I have reached the point where I love God and do not want to overeat because I know it hurts Him.  My next step is to depend on Him enough to trust Him with my fears.

1 John 4:18 is “There is no fear in love; instead perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment.  So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.”     (Holman Christian Standard Bible, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009)  I love God enough to trust Him with my struggles.  In the midst of stress I forget to lean on Him for strength.  God is my strength and my deliverer.  He can guide me through any situation.