Looking Back

For the past few weeks, I’ve taken a break from writing new Fear Fighting content. Instead, I've been editing and revising what the Lord and I have spent the last 2.5 years creating.

You know what’s been so neat about this editing intermission?

Seeing how God was weaving together a tapestry that I wasn’t aware of.

See, once I started tackling Deuteronomy, the lessons in Fear Fighting became a lot deeper. Rather than simply studying how to manage anxiety, the Lord changed the book's focus to tackle the root of it: unbelief.

Or at least, that’s when I thought He changed our course. In all actuality, though, He’d been paving that path since day one …

On the very first day of writing Fear Fighting, I said in the introduction that I’m “learning to live in faith even when I feel afraid” (citation: me). Sounds kinda like this Deuteronomical faith over fear focus, doesn’t it?

Furthermore, when studying Sarah in Genesis, I noted how God’s “given her the Truth to believe in … but she has to choose to believe it. To believe Him” (also me). Guys, when I read that, I couldn’t help but gasp; that statement’s the epitome of this anti-unbelief message!

Plus, another big aspect of Deuteronomy revolves around clinging to our known God instead of unknown idols, and would ya looky here: referring to Jacob, I said, “in our trials and tug-of-wars, may we fix our eyes on the our trustworthy, faithful, known God … and let Him lead us through the unknown” (me again).

All those examples are just from the first fifty pages of Fear Fighting. Who knows what other embedded tidbits I’ll discover during my editing process?

Throughout the entire manuscript, God was preparing my heart for a hard Truth that He’d uncover in the perfect time, in His amazing Deuteronomical time (I think Deuteronomy is my favorite book of the Bible, if you can’t tell).

And so, friends, I urge you to look back.

While the vast majority of you don’t have a manuscript documenting the last twenty-nine months of your life, you do have paper. Or a phone. Or some way to record your thoughts and prayers (I even designed some journals to help you out!).

I’d suggest documenting your journey with the Lord in some way because, let me tell you, some day, you’ll look back through those pages and realize how greatly God worked. Right under your nose, He was answering prayers and parting seas, making “a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Is 43:19).

One of the simplest ways we can strengthen our faith, and therefore fight fear, is by looking back.

Remembering how dependable He is.

How He’s never failed …

And He won’t start now.