Dear Friends,
I started chapter seven and love it! Wow this book is awesome!
It's like every chapter gets better and better.
But I'm going to make y'all think back. Smile. And if you can, go back and read the first few pages of that chapter before you answer my question. It will refresh your memory!
Her family sends some relatives to go after her:
Pride, Bitterness, Resentment, and Self-Pity
(I hope I got all of those right, I'm at work and don't have the book in front of me.)
Questions: Out of these four enemies, which do you feel like you have struggled with the most and how have you worked to overcome them?
Sometimes it's hard for me to be completely open and honest about my weaknesses. But this book club has helped me to do just that.
The enemy I have been struggling with the most recently is one that is not even on the list I named, but it is an enemy Much-Afraid struggled with so I guess it counts.
This is from copied from my book journal with a few parts I've added in:
"I have been struggling with fear the past few days. What I have always thought of as 'worry' I am beginning to realize comes from a fearful heart, which is just by the way, what the enemy would love for us to have.
Little seeds of fear and doubt creep in and if they aren't dealt with quickly and turned over to Jesus, they can become much bigger and grow into something that will be much harder to root out later on.
In chapter nine Craven Fear tells Much-Afraid, "Well, take your choice. Either you must go up there, where you know that you can't, but will end in a mangled heap at the bottom, or you must come back and live with me and be my little slave ever afterward."
So we like Much-Afraid have a choice to make. Are we going to allow ourselves to become slaves to Craven Fear? Or are we going to trust the Shepherd to help us?
I choose to call on the Shepherd!"
So to answer my question I have struggled with Craven Fear the most, and it's only through God that I am working to overcome him. First, I prayed and prayed and prayed! I was struggling with worry. Secondly God spoke to me through His Word. I love when He does that! I was reading in my Bible reading, and you know how sometimes when you are reading you are thinking about other things so you are not really getting what you are reading? :) Well I had already read these verses, but I 'happen' to look back over them and catch them again. And this is what I read:
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Behold, all they that were incenced against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be nothing, and as a thing of nought.
For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not: I will help thee."
Isaiah 41: 10-13
And then thirdly, God made the whole thing clear to me. The enemy was fighting me, The enemy doesn't want us to trust God, he doesn't want us to have peace and joy. But God does, He has come to bring us peace. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear..." 1 John 4:18 God has reminded me of this again and again.
I absolutely love being a Christian! And I love you guys!
I look forward to hearing your answers-Anna
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