Beaten By Things Unreal

A week or so ago, I was playing the game "Hi Ho Cherry-0" with my four year old and one of her "friends".  This particular friend happens to be a Barbie doll named Makenzie. Yes, I am 37 years old and play with barbie dolls.  : )  

In case you have never played this game or if it has been 30 years and need a refresh, you put plastic cherries on a tree and then spin a spinner.  Whatever number the spinner lands on, that is how many cherries you can take off your tree.  The person who removes all the cherries from their tree first is the winner.

Well, that morning Makenzie, the Barbie doll, won the game!   I had been beaten at a game by a Barbie doll!  How sad, right?  The only thing sadder would have been if only the doll and I had been playing.  : )

I thought it was pretty funny and shared it on facebook.  One of my friends said, "There has to be a great blog illustration there somewhere."   So, I started thinking.  Yes, there is!

I was beaten that morning by something that isn't real.

Oftentimes in life, we allow ourselves to be beaten by things that are not real.  

We allow fears based on the unreal to keep us bound up.  

We live our lives in defeat because of insecurities that are based on lies.  

When I was a little girl, I slept with my light on every night because I was afraid of the dark. Now, there was really nothing to be afraid of in my room.  I thought I saw a pirate on my closet door and I was afraid of the pirate in the dark.  Looking back.....what are the chances there was an actual pirate in my room!  0% chance!  So, I was afraid of something not real.  There was no chance that it was real, yet, I was afraid of it.  I let it beat me.

Even more recently....about 12 years ago, the movie "The Sixth Sense" came out.   After seeing this movie, I feared that I would see dead people.  Come on, are you kidding me!  It isn't real!  I really use to struggle with fear. It took a few days of saying the verse below out loud to defeat that unreal fear.

I cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,and I bring every thought in to captivity to the obedience of Christ.  2 Corinthians 10:5  (I inserted "I" to make it more real for me and to personalize it.) 

The verse right above this one is....

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.  2Cor 10:4

Much of the battlefield is in our minds.  The weapon we use to win the war is the Word of God.  We must cast down wrong thoughts and every thought that is contrary to the Word of God.  Fear is not from the Lord, and we need to cast it down and find the truth of God's Word to replace the fearful lie.  God's Word will pull down strongholds (anything that has a hold on your mind).

To this day, I won't watch that movie.  There are many movies I won't watch.  We have to protect our minds.

Much fear comes from what we put in our minds.

The two examples above are like the fear of "monsters in the closet".  Fear based on something unreal, it couldn't happen.

There are other fears that could happen, but we need to choose to believe God's Word.  Often, even these fears are based in a lie.

Examples:

1. A friend of mine shared with me how she feared her husband leaving her for another woman.  He is a wonderful man and there is no truth to back up this fear, and she was letting this unreal fear keep her in bondage. 

2.  A fear of rejection causing one to not make new friends or feel uncomfortable around people.  This fear is often based on a lie and is not real.

3.  Fear of disaster happening, fearing the worst.  Yes, we live in a fallen world and bad things happen.  However, we do not need to live our lives in fear.  God is our protector  (Psalms 91).  When those thoughts come, we need to cast them down.  Fearful thoughts do not line up with God's Word. 

4. Fear of failure, not trying new things or what is outside our comfort zones in fear that we will fail.  Yes, failure is a possibility, but it is definite when fear paralyzes one from trying.  We may fail, but the Lord never fails us and He will turn any failure into a victory.

There are many examples of how we fear things that are unreal.  We fear things that have not happened and there is no basis to believe they will happen.  There is actually a medical term for people who fear sickness when they are not really sick.  The term is hypochondriac.  Many times, these people actually develop symptoms of what they are fearing.  They let something unreal defeat them.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.  2 Tim 1:7

Fear may have such a hold that is seems real to us.  It is never from God.  We need to have more faith in our Lord than in our fears.  Fear may try to come into our thoughts, it is what we do with it from there that will determine if it defeats us or not.  It is bad enough to be beaten by a Barbie doll, let's not let things unreal beat us in life.