We have Options!

Mark 5:36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.

The lab test came back positive for yet another autoimmune disease. I had been diagnosed in February, 1999 with SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus). And now it seemed I would have to battle an even more serious illness in addition to the SLE, which I might add was quite enough to manage all by itself.

I had read about all the symptoms of this newly diagnosed disease and the prognosis wasn’t very pleasant to say the least.

The house was so quiet that Sunday afternoon when my mind began to race – I, of course, imagined the worst possible scenarios. I paced the floors. My heart began to pound as the onslaught of worries and fears took over my thoughts.

I began to cry out to God… I remember saying, “Lord, I just need a word from You. Just one word from You can change everything.” Well, He gave me two words. “Fear not!”

Now, you may be thinking how in the world can you just turn fear off like that? If it couldn’t be done, then Jesus would not have commanded us to “Fear not!” on so many occasions in the New Testament.

Surprisingly enough, those two words were enough to calm me down. Every time a worried, fearful thought entered my mind, I would say, “Nope, I’m not fearing that!”  And believe it or not, each time I made a conscience effort to do that, my fear and dread seemed to dissipate into thin air.

How could it possibly be that easy when I thought I was potentially facing the worst physical challenge of my life? Nothing had changed…the lab test was still positive…the prognosis had not improved. So, what made the difference?

I was doing battle with my fears. I was casting down imaginations and bringing my thoughts into the obedience of Christ as 2 Cor. 10:5 commands us to do. It is possible to refuse fear and believe it or not, it must submit. Fear is simply an option, like faith!  We choose fear or we opt out of it by choosing faith instead.

Here’s what I think happens, Satan is constantly offering us fear, or worry, or anger, or bitterness, or lust, etc. They come as thoughts. But we don’t have to accept them by allowing them to STAY and torment our mind. We have the ability to cast those thoughts down and choose to think on Christ-centered, Biblical truths instead. For example, “Jesus wants me to have an abundant life”… “He will never leave me nor forsake me”… “He will cause all things to work out for my good!”

Satan is continuously presenting us with negative choices on a daily basis, but you don’t have to TAKE them. We have OPTIONS! Simply because a fear comes to mind doesn’t mean you have to open the door to it. When Satan, the fear salesman, comes knocking don’t purchase his propaganda. Say, “No, I’ll not be buying any of that today!” Send him packing. He can’t force you to take it!  You do not have to invite him in, or even listen to his negative sales pitch. Just say “NO” to him and “YES” to faith-filled meditations from the Word! It will change your outlook and your outcome.

Phil. 4:8 tells us to meditate on or think about things that are lovely and of a GOOD report. Replace those old depressing, fearful, bitter, discouraged views with an abundant-life mentality. Jesus said that He came to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10). That abundant life begins or ends with each thought you accept or reject.

I cleaned out my closet and hung all my clothes on a rack. As I went through them one by one, I made a choice. My thought process went sort of like this: “I don’t like that dress anymore; that one looks pretty but it doesn’t look good on me; that one doesn’t fit; this one is too tight and restricts my freedom to move.” FEAR restricts our freedom to move. We engage in this type of self-talk all the time, but often we don’t realize the bad choices we are making to let fear dominate.

Be actively engaged in cleaning out the closet of your mind – throw out the thoughts that make you a victim of fear, lust, bitterness, depression, etc. Just say NO! And then say YES to the abundant life Christ is offering you – You have options!

By the way…the follow-up tests came back negative.