It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but for many years I had a fear of the dark, and it went on into adulthood. Yes, I was afraid of the dark as an adult basically.

I couldn’t stand being in a dark room, always felt I needed a light on somewhere. I was a pro at going to sleep with the light on. It became a problem when I got married and Jason needed a dark room in order to be able to sleep. Ha!

Don’t ask me the steps of going from being afraid of the dark to not afraid of the dark because I couldn’t tell you. Well, I could, but it’s not really a step 1, step 2 kind of thing. The truth is, it’s more of just a “step 1” and then the Lord takes it from there kind of thing. For me, the first step was recognizing it was an issue and if I wanted to get over it, I needed to recognize that it was something I needed to hit head on. My dilemma was that I didn’t have the strength to hit it head on, so I had to begin to ask the Lord for help. For me, this is how it has been with fears in general. He’ll help us, but we’ve got to stop running first. Then when we stop running and take Him by the hand, the Lord just does things and we don’t even know how we got from point A to point Z.

This is somewhat related (and yet not really related), but it did remind me of a passage I just read in a book I am currently reading called, “Spirit, Soul & Body” by Andrew Wommack. I love this passage from the book:

“Darkness is simply the absence of light. You can’t get rid of darkness by shoveling it out of the room. However, if you turn on the light it’ll flee. When you walk in the Spirit (turn on the light), by default –as a by-product — you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh (darkness flees)… If you feel you can’t really accept who you are in Christ until after you overcome the darkness in your life… you’ll just end up frustrated and stuck. It’s not that God won’t release His power to you; it’s just that you haven’t yet flipped the switch. Lay that shovel down and turn on the light! Get into God’s Word, and start recognizing and meditating on who you are in Christ. As you focus your attention continually on the reality of your new identity, the brightness of who you are in the Spirit will begin to shine in and through you to such a degree that it’ll break the control of the flesh and deliver you from these external problems. Light always overwhelms and chases away the dark.” –from “Spirit, Soul & Body” by Andrew Wommack

–Heather