"OVERCOMING" 4-16-12

Here is your random fact for the day:

Did you know the longest word in the Bible is Mahershalalhashbaz found in Is 8:1?   I would like to hear you say THAT 3 times! Wowza!

This week as I was planning my next blog, the Holy Spirit (who is so COOL by the way) reminded me of my High School days. Oh, how I miss you DRAMA days…NOT!

High School memories bring mixed emotions for me. It was a FUN time filled with good memories and then there was a time that wasn’t so fun. In the beginning of my Sophomore year, I came upon a horrible wreck after school. I saw some things that no 15 year old should see. Something happened that day that changed me. As I looked upon the scene before me, FEAR like no other came upon me and from then on I started having MAJOR panic attacks.  

To keep a looonng story short my panic attacks were the worst throughout the end of my Junior year. I was very involved in Cheerleading and the Drill team. I was a good student and was friends with everyone, but not many people knew what I was going through. I felt embarrassed and ashamed and didn’t want anybody to find out. It was like I was 2 very different people. They didn’t see me in the mornings when my mom dropped me off at school, crying and weeping in the floor board begging her not to let me go. They didn’t know that during practices it was all I could do, not to just scream and run out the door, because the pressure in my mind was so severe. They couldn’t hear me cry from the time I got home to the early mornings. They didn’t know that I had to take medication for anxiety and depression. (which DID NOT help) 

I was very involved in my Youth Group. My grandparents were pastoring at the time and I had the best youth pastor. I had my family supporting me and trying to pull me through my horrible nightmare. I remember at the football games, the only way I could get through my performances was knowing at the very top of the bleachers my mom and grandma were up there interceding and praying for me. I watched them the entire time.

Although, all the support and prayers did help a little, I still was miserable. I knew that to overcome this attack in my mind, I had to be the one to speak over MY BODY, MY MIND. My best friend in the whole world was my prayer journal, it was my very own prayer closet. It was here that I started really having a deeper knowledge and relationship with the Lord. To this day, I still keep a prayer journal. I love to look back at all my entries and see the work of the Lord and what He has brought me through.

As I started to write I grew bolder in the Lord and the Word. I would find scriptures and speak them over myself. I would write them on my notebooks, have them inside my locker…

JESSICA-

You can do ALL things through Christ who gives you strength.  Phil 4:13

You have the MIND of Christ

For God has not given YOU a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a SOUND MIND. 2 Timothy 1:7

Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and Life are in the power of the tongue”….

YIKES, that’s some pretty serious stuff. When I would wake up and say, “ I just dread going to school”… “I can’t do this anymore”…..”I feel like I am losing my mind”…..

I had to change up my vocabulary and speak what Jesus says about me. “ I AM GOING TO HAVE A GREAT DAY AT SCHOOL”  and so on and so on.

Watch what you speak over yourself. Speak life to yourself. SPEAK.THE WORD.

I could start seeing a difference. When that panic started to rise up I would excuse myself, go to the bathroom, look into that mirror and start talking to myself (and not in a CrAzY way..;) )

Ephesians 6:11 says, " Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil"....

I remember one time while I was LITERALLY putting on my armor in the bathroom. A girl walked in and I was pretending to put my shield of Faith and boots of Peace on…HAHAHA, she looked at me and then walked right out. She probably thought that I WAS cRaZy..:0)

Even to this day sometimes that little panicky feeling tries to creep up on me. That’s when I say,” OH NO, I don’t think so. You get away from me Devil, I KNOW who I am in Christ!”  GO.AWAY!

Find some scriptures that will help you with whatever you are dealing with. Write them and put them where you can read it and speak it over yourself. Put it in your notebooks and in your lockers at school. Maybe it will be a witness to your peers. Tell them about if they read it!

Be BLESSED!

-Jessica