The other night my entire bedroom was uproariously laughing at a super lame joke. There was snorting, honking, gasping for air, and cackles. Even in our over-tired state there was so much joy filling the room, and I was sure God was laughing with us.
All of a sudden our laughter stopped and every head turned toward the window. We heard a scary noise. There was a bit of rustling and some heavy footsteps. Every heart in the room started racing, eyes wide open in the dark, ears perked to hear what might happen next. Our spirits froze.
But we have not been created in a spirit of fear. We are not meant to fear anything. We are meant to rest in the peace our Lord gives us, knowing that we have been created in His image, knowing that we have authority because of how we were created.
But I couldn't help it. The Enemy placed some fear around me, and instead of fighting against it, I succumbed to it. My mind raced through all the horrible possibilities of what might happen. I was making up a thousand what if circumstances, deciding how to make a run for it rather than stand up and fight.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to choke out the words "in the name of Jesus Christ, there is no fear, and in the name of Jesus Christ, we are protected." Within five minutes of this declaration, all the girls in my bedroom were sleeping, including myself. God dropped a divine rest upon my room, and we all woke up feeling more refreshed and joyful than the day before.
When I woke up in the morning, after recounting the terrifying noise, I went to examine the compound to see what it could have been. Turns out it was the guard dog bumping his food dish around the driveway, and the footsteps was the security guard trying to make the dog stop.
There was nothing to fear afterall. What amazes me is how we allow the Enemy to take a dog's food dish and turn it into a murderous prison escapee breaking into our room.
All this to say, we ought to stand in the authority and strength we have as children of God, knowing we are protected and can cast out fear in Jesus's name. If I had remembered to do this in the first place I would have saved a lot of adrenaline from pumping vigorously and unneccesarily through my veins.
