Free Beauty for ashes: receiving emotional healing by Joyce Meyer

were thrown into the furnace, and the king turned up the heat seven times hotter than it was before. This reminds me of those times when we make the right decision, but it seems that our troubles multiply.
    I like this story, because it says that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were bound and thrown into the fire, but that when the king looked into the fire, they were loosed. Sometimes we go into problems all bound, but it is in the problem, going through things, that we get loosed and delivered. The king saw a fourth man in the fire with them-remember Jesus said, "Fear not, for I am with you."
    When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were brought out, they did not even smell like smoke. I relate to these men, because the devil tried to destroy me. I went through so much pain from the abuse in my life, and when I tried to get free from it I found more pain that I could not understand. Then God showed me how we go through things that put us in bondage, but we have to go through the same things to get back out.
    When we begin our journey to wholeness with the Lord, we are usually all knotted up inside with fear. Fear is the enemy of confidence. People can be afraid of many things, of driving cars, of being alone, and of some deep-seated phobias.
    I think of F.E.A.R. as False Evidence Appearing Real. If the devil can frighten us, then we are putting more faith in what he says than in what God says. It is one thing to feel fear, but fear will control us if we do not stand our ground and face our fears.
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    A woman was sharing how fear was keeping her from doing things that she needed to do. So her friend said, "Well, do it afraid." That was life-changing advice for me. Sometimes we have to face our fears and just "do it afraid."As we allow God to do so, He begins to straighten up our lives by untying "one knot of fear at a time." He helps us go through hard things and discover that His promises are true. We cannot spend our lives running away from everything we fear.
    Some people are so afraid of elevators they will turn down a job that is located on an upper floor of a building. If they want the job, they need to get on that elevator, pray, go up a few floors, get off, breathe, and repeat the process until they overcome their fear. We need to overcome our fears that keep us from carrying out God's perfect will for our lives.
    The Bible is full of scriptures that say, "Fear not," because God knew that Satan was going to try to use fear to keep His people from fulfilling their destiny in Him.
    To some of His first disciples Jesus said, "I am the Way, follow Me." When you decide to follow Jesus, you will soon learn that He never turns back in fear. His path is always straightforward to the finish line. Do not be like the woman in my prayer line who always gave up halfway through the race. As difficult as it may be, decide to stay in the race and see it through!
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    Let Go of the PastI encourage people to let go of their past, but never to run from it. The only way to gain victory over the pain of our past is to let God walk us back through that doorway of pain and into victory. No one can achieve victory for us; we have to work out our own salvation. Paul explained this truth in his letter to the Philippian church, saying:
    Therefore, my dear ones . . . work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverenceandawe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).
    [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasureandsatisfactionanddelight. (Philippians 2:12, 13)
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    We have to let God take us through things, and let Him work in us so our mess becomes our message. Difficult things that we have endured in our past