Don't give the devil a foothold.

So before you read this you have to promise not to stop being my friend just because I'm crazy.  I, like many people, get anxious.  One of the ways I attempt to cope with feelings of anxiety is to think through the worst case scenario of any given situation.  Like if Kevin is out of town traveling I make a mental plan of how to get all four boys out of our burning house in the middle of the night by myself, where we will live after and how I'd like the laundry room rebuilt should we have to renovate following the fire.  On some level I believe if I think all the way through a possible disaster it will somehow make the actual event, should it ever come to pass, more endurable.  One time I got so far through one of these worst case scenarios that I was actually planning a person's eulogy.  (Please don't stop being my friend!!)  The fact is that fear, anxiety and worry grips each of us at some time or another and the Bible has much to say about its uselessness.  I was driving last week to College Station to see my sister.  It was late in the evening and the sun had already set.  The stretch between Hempstead and Navasota has no lights and if there is no traffic--as there was not late on that weekday evening--it is dark, dark, dark on the road!  As I drove along and a familiar feeling of fear started to creep in--how will they find me if I crash the car out here by myself? will wolves eat my body?--
so also did part of this verse from Ephesians..."do not give the devil a foothold."  Paul is writing to the Ephesians here about anger, warning them that when we get carried away in anger we give Satan a chance to come in and move us in the wrong direction.  Fear works in the same way and it is NOT what God wants for us.  "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).  Fear is useless, unfruitful and distracts us from the confidence we need to spread God's joy in this world (and, frankly, drive a vehicle safely!).  And worst of all it allows the devil to creep in and place doubt where God intends trust to be!  If you're anxious about something, full of worry, full of fear shut it down!!  Hand that worry over to God and do not give Satan the chance to get his foot in the door.  Turn on the radio while you're driving in the dark (not too loud as to be distracting) and avoid the crazy place where you're planning funerals and escape routes because that's not where God needs you to be.  God needs you here, now, today where He can show you hope and give you joy.  You deserve that.  And, crazy or not, so do I.  XOXO....Kelly