Panic Attacks - Part 3 - Prescription for Solution

It has taken me a long time to get around to this post.  Yes, I've been busy but that's not what's held things up.  It is important to me to get it right so I have done much research and prayed much and thought long.  And I've worried.  Fearful that I'll not get it right or offend someone or miss the chance to offer genuine help.  So I've put it off.  But the post keeps writing itself in my head.  It's time to get it on the blog. And to move beyond my own fear!  I pray that it will bring hope and help...that it will be Truth - and Grace...that even just one person might be encouraged.


Here goes...........

Panic attacks do not have to control you. No one needs to be debilitated by fear or anxiety.  That is the total and simple truth.


Now, how to live in that truth?  Here are the suggestions  I have for you to overcome and prevent panic attacks. (Some of what I share has been mentioned in the previous posts but it bears repeating and expounding)


1. Get a physical.  While the root of panic attacks is clearly NOT physiological, the symptoms are and it is helpful to address issues such as thyroid imbalance that could be exacerbating the problem. 
However, remember that the cause is not physical.  And the solution is not either.  Try to avoid the use of medication as a solution.  This can actually become a hindrance in being set free from fear but if you truly cannot cope, then use medicine as a temporary support to get you to the place where you can deal with the real issues.


2.  Believe that God wants to heal you of this. Far too many people are deceived into thinking they have to live like this.  I cannot overemphasize how wrong that is!  Fear is never the plan for His children.  Being cured of cancer or becoming debt free or looking like a model may not always be His plan for us but we can be confident that living in fear is NOT what He purposes for us.  How can I be so sure of that?  Because He commands us over and over and over "Do not fear".  Nearly 100 times!! So if He commands us not to fear, then fear clearly is not right for us.  We don't have to "settle" for it or think it is our "normal" and just learn to live with it.  Emphatically NO!  Our responsibility is to believe Him, to take Him at His Word.  (See Mark 9:20-24) Read my earlier posts about this.http://livingletters4.blogspot.com/search/label/Panic%20Attacks  God wields incomparable power in the lives of those of us who believe Him.  Ephesians 1:18-20 says having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,  and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might ² that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,


3.  Be willing to be healed.  As preposterous as it sounds, we are not always willing for God to heal us!  Perhaps we fear wholeness more than what holds us captive.  There is comfort in familiarity, even that which ensnares us.  And, as difficult as this is to say, I must be truthful - we derive benefit from our captivity to fear!  Pathetic, but true.  "Benefits" such as controlling the behavior of those around us.  Or  absolving oneself of personal responsibility.  Or eliciting sympathy from others.  Playing victim and expecting our "due compensation". 
God wants to give us the authentic benefits of wholeness and not these cheap imitations.  And, while He could heal us instantaneously and without any effort on our part, He usually requires that we play a role in the healing.  (See John 5:5,6).  Because He uses our participation to develop the spiritual muscle we need to hold the ground we will regain.  There will always be a battle, this side of Glory.  And weak, fearful soldiers will be repeatedly defeated.  Only those who have become strong in the Lord will survive victorious.


4.  Dig out the root of the fear.  This is where the hard works happens.  While even unbelievers can achieve a measure of success over panic attacks through controlling and redirecting thought patterns, sustainable victory is only possible by uncovering and removing the root of fear.  That is only done with the Sword of the Spirit...the Word of God.


Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
 And see if there be any hurtful way in me,And lead me in the everlasting way.  Psalm 139:23,24


Look carefully and see the connection between "hurtful way" and "anxious thoughts".  Here, God clearly gives us the diagnosis and prescription - when we are plagued by anxiety, there is a root down under that needs the Spirit of God to uncover.  "Hurtful way" refers to "idolatry" and is the opposite of "everlasting way", the way of God, which is timeless and eternal and right. 
I believe the psalmist is explaining to us that the root of anxiety and panic - usually well covered up and only discernible by the Holy Spirit - is something which we have placed above God's rightful place, which is idolatry.  2 Corinthians 10:5 sheds more light on this.  This verse tell us that every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God needs to be destroyed because these thoughts open us up to the occupation of the Enemy in our souls.  When we value something above God - be it something material or a relationship or our own public image - we actually allow the Enemy to build a fortress (2 Corinthians 10:4) in our souls, set up camp, and influence our behavior.


Do not freak out - I am not suggesting that Christians can be possessed by the devil!!!!!!!!!


But I am conveying the Truth of His Word to you - and we can be (and are) most surely influenced by him!  Just take a look around you...and then apply Psalm 139 to your own heart and look within you.


The stronghold of fear (which manifests itself as panic attacks and the like) involves an idol.  And an idol is anything that becomes our chief focus, directs our behavior, exalts itself above the knowledge of God.


And the only way to get rid of the fear is to destroy the stronghold by demolishing the idol.


5.  Now, to the demolition process.  Once God by His Spirit has revealed to us the idol(s) , we have a choice.  We can deny the truth and continue to live in fear.  Plenty of people do that.  Plenty of people choose the comfort of familiarity and its "benefits" over the joy and freedom that is possible.
If you, however, decide to choose the light instead of the darkness, here is what you can do :
 
       a.  Confess your sin.  Agree with God that you have allowed the Enemy to occupy your soul through your idolatry.  Name your idol, whatever it is.  Speak aloud the desire to repent of this and to cast off the stronghold of fear.  Admit that you even feel fear to do this!  He already knows; you just need to hear yourself say it.
        b.  In faith, bow your heart to the One True God.  Read aloud verses that proclaim His position such as Nehemiah 9:, 1 Chronicles 29:11, Psalm 95:3-5.  Repeat and repeat and repeat  (It is actually a good idea to make this a daily practice, that of acknowledging Who God Is!)
       c.  Believe in His goodness towards you.  Isaiah 42:3 assures us of His gentle grace towards His frail people - A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.    Rehearse the truths of passages such as Psalm 31:19 and Psalm 116:1-9.  One woman shared so beautifully with me that "Jesus knows our frailties but He loves us too much to leave us in them".  Amen!!
       d.  The Word of God destroys the fortresses of the Enemy and it is the building block for a life unshakeable by fear - Matthew 7:24-27.  And 1 Thessalonians 2:13.
      
6.  This last point is major.  Critical. Huge.   I urge you not to overlook it.  Often, we think that the opposite of fear is courage.  Or faith.  While those are great attributes to have, that is not what Scripture teaches us is the antidote to fear.  Read carefully what God says to us in 1 John 4:16-21
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this is love perfected (completed/matured) with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected(completed/matured) in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
I have  heard it said that we need to know the love of Christ for us, in order to be freed from fear. I do not disagree at all.  The Apostle Paul expresses this truth in Ephesians 3, where he prays for us to intimately know and experience the height and depth and breadth and length of Christ's love.  Indeed, we need that indelibly imprinted on our souls.
But that is not all that is needed to free us from the stronghold of fear, to give us the freedom to live confidently and joyfully. This passage so very clearly outlines what else is needed.
Not only do we need to know God's love for us, we need also to love God and our brother!
The failure to do so, dear sisters, is what puts us in the place of idolatry.  This is the sin that causes us to value something more than we do God.  Ultimately, it is the sin of pride, of self-exaltation, that conceives, gives birth to, and nourishes the root of idolatry.  Instinctively, we know this.  (Even non believers have a God-given conscience that whispers this to them but we believers are especially aware of our failure, deep in our souls). And this knowledge leads us to condemn ourselves and lose our confidence (re-read the passage from I John to see this clearly).  Not just the failure to love God but also the manifestation of this failure in our lack of love for others is what causes us to respond in all sorts of emotionally handicapping ways, including panic attacks. The presence of love (not just God's love towards us but this passage is particularly dealing with our love towards God and others) gives confidence.  But the lack of love (towards God and therefore others) is what brings fear.  Fear of God's judgment. Which breeds the desire to escape.  We saw this first demonstrated in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and we see it today in lives all around us.  We just didn't know what caused it.  And now we do. A failure to love leads to a desire to flee.  Unreasonable fear.


Practically, how do we deal with this?  Can we ever expect to live a life of perfect love?


Perfection isn't needed.  What the word translated as "perfected" means is actually mature.  That is a life that is obedient.  Not perfect but mature.  Walking in the Spirit instead of the flesh.
How do we do that?
Regular and consistent confession of sin.  Let the Holy Spirit reveal where we have not walked in love and then confess it.  He is faithful to forgive us of that as well as to cleanse us of all else that we are not even aware of.  (I John 1:9,10).  Without confession and repentance, we cannot walk in the Spirit   And apart from His Spirit, we cannot love Him or others.  And that leaves us open to all sorts of failures and strongholds and snares.
But by His Spirit...oh, by His Spirit, there is peace.  Joy.  Love.  No fear!






Even as I type this, I am overcome by a feeling of might by His power.  I cannot sit by while my sisters are paralyzed by the deceit of the Enemy.  We do not have to be controlled by fear!  And we do not have to depend on hours upon hours of expensive therapy or mind-numbing medication to gain freedom.  What we need is for the Light that shone out of darkenss to shine in our hearts...to give us the  light of the knowledge of the of the glory of God  and to know that we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:6, 7)  And what we need to do is to love others with God's agape love.


Do not settle for a life controlled by fear.  Do not use your anxiety as a tool of manipulation.  Do not let the Enemy remain in a position of influence in your life.  Be willing to repent of idols and begin to walk in love.














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Blog-savvy I am not....

Hello friends-
I am still a novice at understanding blog-world and cyber-techniques.  Some readers have told me they have signed up for email but don't get the posts.  So I checked into what I could figure out...there are several email addresses that show up as "unverified".  (Sounds like work for CIA or something....)  So I am doing some detective work to see how to get their posts to them via email..


If you receive Living Letters via email, please let me know.  If you signed up to receive them that way and do not get them, please let me know.  If you only read through FB postings, also let me know.


And if you want to get them through email, there is a place to sign up on the site.  The view of the site shows up differently on mobile devices than on laptops so you may have to search around til you find the place to submit your email.


Thanks for reading - I love e-chatting with you!!

Losing a pet

There was an accident and my baby's fur-baby was gone.  I had dreaded this day for 4 1/2 years. "Feared" is probably a better description. I knew full well that kitties don't last forever and this day would inevitably arrive at some point.  I had never seen a child love an animal like this.  Ever.  And the thought of her being separated from that relationship was unbearable.

I was the one who found Ninja.  Although it was inexplicably painful to see, I was overcome with relief that it was I and not my baby.  Telling her would be impossible enough but thinking that she so easily could have been the first one on the scene was deplorable.  In the midst of my grief, I felt a measure of thanks.


I stalled for several minutes.  What in the world would I say?  How does one break the news that a best friend is gone? I found my own mom and poured out my heart.  She was pale with grief herself.  Anyone that knows Betsy knows of her bond with this feline.  To call their relationship unique doesn't even do it justice.


Maybe it's the "last child" syndrome - with all the other siblings grown and gone, the baby attached so deeply to this ball of fur that so lavishly reciprocated her love. Whatever it was, Betsy loved this kitty with abandon.


And I had to tell her he was gone.


I climbed the stairs slowly.  Praying on every step.  She was in her room studying, blissfully unaware that I was about to upend her world.


There was no easy way to break the news.  So I just told her.


And we both fell apart.


We cried in each other's arms for a long time.
It helped to meander through treasured memories.  Like the birthday parties she threw him every year.  Complete with games and guests and cat cakes, made from the finest cat food we could find.  And his patience while my grandchildren learned how to "be easy with the kitty". And the times she dressed him up in doll clothes.  We noted that it was clear he was embarrassed by that!  But he endured it all for her.


We looked at picture albums, dedicated solely to Ninja Spy.  And I cherished in my heart the times I violated house rules and family allergies and let her bring him to her room.  The image of the two of them on her window seat is indelibly printed on my memory film.  I am thankful.


Her daddy came home from work in the middle of the day.  He choked telling her about losing Mutt when he was her age.  He promised a proper burial and a grave marker when she was ready.


We cried some more.  And eventually we were able to laugh about the times he would dart in a partially open screen door and race straight to her room before we tracked him down and returned him to the great outside.  And about the most unusual relationship he had with Shadow.  No dog-cat fight here.  They absolutely adored one another and enjoyed quite a symbiosis when it came to ridding our yard of squirrels.  So much so that we all learned to watch our step as we opened the kitchen door - too many times we inadvertently stumbled on their "trophies" sitting on the floor mat, awaiting our applause.


Her siblings sent flowers.  That very day.  Just when you wonder if you've failed as a parent, you see the brother and the sisters rally together to support baby sister and you know a measure of success.  You've had the greatest siblings in the history of the universe grow up under your roof.  Thankful.


Texts.  Calls.  Deliveries of candy and a visit from a treasured friend.  An understanding youth group leader from church brought a plant. Cards.  Prayers.  Thankful.


Y'all, this is a big deal.  For real.  I don't consider myself an inordinately avid animal lover but this kitty was different.  We all loved him.


And mainly we all love Betsy.  Anything that causes her pain, wrenches the lifeblood from each of our hearts.


I know we will survive.  I know this is not the end of the world and for some readers, this may seem like pathetic hyperbole.
But you must not have known Ninja and you must not love Betsy like we do.


And if it offends you that I assured Betsy that I find no Biblical violation to my belief that our precious Ninja is now curled up on the end of my Daddy's recliner in Glory, well, then I feel sorry for you.  Because I am convinced that the two of them are having a last laugh at your expense!


The healing begins.  She told me she could  never ever ever replace Ninja Spy.
But that there might be a kitty out there somewhere that needed a home to love. We shall find him.
I know he will love my Betsy.
And I hope he doesn't mind dress up clothes and a dog named Shadow.

Who do you hang with?

He who walks with wise men will be wise but the companion of fools will suffer harm.  Proverbs 13:20

I know we are called to be a light to this dark world but in order to maintain our brightness we would do well to heed the counsel of this verse.  Walking with wise men – that doesn’t mean we never sit by a fool at our kid’s soccer game!  (Considering the behavior of most parents at kids’ sports events…we would likely be in solitary confinement if that’s what this verse intended!) Rather I believe it is calling us to choose carefully who we “do life with”.  Who are our close companions, whose company do we prefer, which people are the ones we rely on and turn to in times of need.  It is of vital importance who those people are, that they be wise, or at least learning to be wise.  Because hanging out with fools brings destruction – the phrase “will suffer harm” means to become evil, to be made worse, suddenly.

May God protect us from wanting to be with those who don’t fear the Lord.  Of course we should pray for them, share Christ with them, and show them love but there is inevitable inherent danger when we choose these kinds of folks to be our close friends. We can tell ourselves as many times as we want to that we are going to influence them for good, that we won’t wind up like them, that these folks are more fun than other options.  But mark my word – actually mark HIS Word, we will suffer harm.  And it will come without warning.

I used to work for Truett Cathy at the corporate offices of Chick-fil-A and one of my many perks was to hear his homespun wisdom on a regular basis.  My most favorite of his saying was “You’ll be the same person a year from now as you are today except for the books you read and the people you associate yourself with.  Friends will determine the quality and direction of your life.  Choose wisely.”

Amen, Truett, Amen.

As we continue in our journey to walk wise, and put our puzzle together to the Glory of God, are there some companions we need to back away from in order to avoid suffering harm? Ask God to reveal His desires for us.

Oh, and let’s also pray fervently that we will be wise companions in the lives of those around us!

 

How to walk wisely?

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.  Psalm 111:10

Last week we talked about walking wisely.  And putting the puzzle pieces together so that our lives are not foolish or wasted. Today’s reading is the place we must begin in order to do just that.  In order to be wise, we must first fear the Lord. 

So what does it mean to fear the Lord?  Doesn’t the Bible tell me not to fear?  This is confusing!

Some commentators say this means we are to respect the Lord.  Others say we should be afraid because of His power.  I am not a Hebrew scholar but I think that it’s helpful to examine the word the psalmist used when the Holy Spirit inspired him to pen these words.  The Hebrew word that we translate “fear” is “yirah” and it means abject terror, fear, awe, reverence.  Perhaps that doesn’t help you much J but let’s unpack it together.

If you and I recognize God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, then the way we live is bound to be affected.  It causes us to respond in awe to His majesty in creation.  To bow in humility and repentance that He knows our every thought. To rejoice in His presence that we are always loved and accepted.  And to long to never displease Him because He is worthy of our devotion and affection and obedience.

That’s how we begin our wise walk.  And that “understanding what the will of God is” that we read about yesterday, the “putting together of the puzzle pieces”?  Well, He tells us in his verse about that, too.  That understanding – that “knowing which pieces go where” – hinges on obeying His commands. 

Today let’s pray this verse back to Him.  Ask Him to show you His glory so you can worship Him.  Ask Him to shine His light into your heart and reveal where you are falling short of what He desires for you.  (Don’t fear doing this – He is gentle and loving in His correction.  He will not show us everything at once for we could not bear it.  But when we confess and repent of whatever He shows us, He is faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, even that which we are not aware of !  I John 1:9,10) Then let His praises endure forever in your heart.  Rejoice that He loves you faithfully and ask Him to show you specific things to obey.