It was early in the morning; maybe two o'clock. I was startled from sleep by a noise. It sounded like something big ran into the corner of the house outside my room. Still half asleep, I thought the worst. In my mind, I pictured some kind of monster. I could only imagine what he looked like, but I could actually hear him breathing loudly, and fast. He must have been running for a while before he ran into the house. Maybe he was just resting for a minute or two, then he would move on. My bed was in the corner of the room, and there was a small window above the headboard of my bed.
I was lying on my back with the covers up to my nose with my mouth covered with everything under the covers except my eyes. I was scared to death. I couldn’t move. I was literally paralyzed with fear. I was afraid the monster was looking in the small window above my bed, so I was afraid to move. I wanted to jump up and run for my life, but I was literally paralyzed with fear. My heart was beating so fast and so hard that I was actually in pain. I was scared to death.
I laid there for what seemed like forever before I was finally able to gain just enough courage to throw back the covers and jump out of bed. When I looked back at the window, there was nothing there. What a relief. I started to calm down and I began thinking a bit more clearly.
When I crawled back into bed and pulled the covers back up over my face, I realized where the heavy breathing was coming from. It was me. I felt so stupid. Remember, I had my face covered. My mouth and nose and part of my ears were all under the cover. As for the noise I heard, it could have been anything, or it could have been nothing. After all, I was asleep when I heard it. Since then, on several occasions, my neck has popped and made a loud noise in my head, usually when I was lying in bed. I’ve learned that we often imagine things, and our mind actually blows it way out of proportion. Like mine did that time.
There was a similar incident, another time when I was older. We lived in an old house that had been remodeled. The last man who lived there died there, and rumors were floating around that the house was haunted. I was in my room one day with my headphones on, remixing a song on my fancy dual cassette recorder. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my bed start shaking. I quickly turned to see what was on my bed but there was nothing there. I threw my headphones off and started to jump up to run out of the room. When I turned around toward the door, there stood my sister’s husband laughing his head off. He had accomplished his goal, though. I was terrified. I had thought the worst.
Sometime later, in the same house, I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t feel my arms. I couldn’t move them either. I didn’t know what was happening so it scared me to death. I couldn’t throw the covers off so I got out of bed the best way I could. My feet got tangled up in the covers and I fell to the floor on my knees. Since I had no control of my arms, I couldn’t put them out to catch myself, so I ended up with my face on the floor as well.
Did I mention that I was screaming the whole time? Well, I was, and that brought everybody in the house running into my room thinking a ghost was attacking me. I had started a new job that week that required me to open and close my hands repeatedly throughout the day. My muscles were having spasms and my arms were numb because of the pressure of the swollen muscles on my nerves. My point is, I was afraid. I don’t like being afraid. It’s not a natural thing. It’s painful, both mentally and physically.
I know some people believe fear is a natural thing because every human will experience it at some point in their lives. Some say that fear is healthy in certain situations, like being afraid of a snake, but just because something happens to everyone doesn’t mean it’s natural. It’s wise to be cautious around snakes, and in many other situations, but we don’t need fear to be cautious. In fact, God’s word tells us that fear is not a natural thing. And as for it being healthy, anything that doesn’t come from God is not healthy, and the Bible says fear does not come from God.
2 Timothy 1:7
7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Fear is a monster, but it’s not outside our windows, or in our bedrooms. Fear is in our minds, and it’s placed there by Satan and his evil angels. Fear does not produce sound minds. Fear leads to broken minds. Just look at the majority of people with mental illness. Fear consumes their minds, and that’s not what God wants at all. Fear does not come from God, and it is not healthy at all.
On several occasions, Jesus told his followers not to be afraid. In the King James Bible, the phrase “Fear Not” is recorded sixty-two times. God doesn’t want us to be afraid. With God on our side, there’s no need for fear. The Apostle Paul said, “If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31). We need to trust God. A close personal relationship with Jesus, the Prince of peace, is vital if we want to purge fear from our minds. If you don’t have that, all you have to do is ask. Peace is only a prayer away.
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