Are you speaking fear or Faith to yourself?

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Without Faith it’s impossible to please God.

Taking your thoughts to the highest level of Faith is an ongoing process that results in self-acceptance, self- understanding, and self-actualization. When we find that our mind-talk consists of a lot of fear-filled negativity—be it self-criticism or self-aggrandizement—we know it’s time to stop and re-orient our inner notions.

Whenever you find yourself trying to think your way through a particular situation, ask yourself these simple questions—

Is this Faith talking?

Is this fear talking, or true reason?

What fear can I identify here . . . and lay to rest with my Faith?

Is there a way to pull Faith into this situation?

What could I do, right now today, that requires Faith?

Excerpt from From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that Lead to Joy! Copyright 2009 Esther Davis-Thompson

Are you ready to leave your fear zone?

Yes, our fears like to boom in our minds in a loud, action-arresting, nasty voice. Fear is definitely an attention-hog, demanding that we drop everything and listen as it warns of the impending disaster and failure and destruction that might happen.

Your fear has the power (that you have given it) to derail every positive train of thought you come up with— stopping you from heeding your growing pains and taking the steps you need to be taking to move your life forward. But you can stop it from taking over if you start to develop awareness about just how often fear has been showing up and reigning in your life. If you’re not sure of your personal fear quotient, ask yourself this: How many decisions has fear made for you lately?

In the last month?

In the last week?

In the last two days?

How about in the last hour?

Understand that the only way to shut down the fear you feel about any situation is to pump up your song of Faith. Drown fear out. Fear’s wrong. Even if the dreaded thing happens. Even if the thing that you so don’t want to have happen . . . happens, it will not be the way fear has been threatening that it will.

And know that the more you depend on Spirit to show you the areas of your life that require spiritual work, the less power fear will have over you.

Remember the “Mother May I?” game? Well, on your life journey, you are both mother (who gives permission) and baby (who takes the steps). And, if mother is a big old scaredy cat—who’s afraid to take risks or venture a thought outside the box—baby’s growth is going to be considerably thwarted.
In some instances, especially where fear is concerned, it may help you to think of yourself as the child, and your spirit-woman as mother—the inner one who fuels your best decisions and weighs the criteria on every situation in your life. Realize that your spirit-woman’s instruction resonates with Divine Wisdom . . . and honor her for choosing to grow you up.

Excerpt from From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that lead to Joy! Copyright 2009 Esther Davis-Thompson

Leaving Fear

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

What is the first thing you fear you’ll run into when you step out of your comfort zone?

And, what is the first thing you fear will run after you when you step out of your comfort zone?

Fear is a quilt made up of many different fabrics, stitched together with threads of worry about the worst that could happen in any given situation. Always, our fearfulness has something to do with a presumed threat of our losing some aspect of our well-being like safety, protection, security, money, friends, companionship, family, status, or home . . . or the collapse of the web of love, approval, validation, and identity, that we’ve woven to support ourselves.

It’s time to determine exactly what the binding thread of your fear is. To help you clarify your fear notions into something you can work with, write down the following thought-equation as many times as you need to, then fill in the blanks:

I fear that if I make this change . . . this will happen.

Now, look at what you’ve written.
Do you know how, or when, you arrived at this space of belief?
Are the sentences you wrote above valid and realistic equations?

Fear forces us into an unnatural state of disharmony with ourselves, keeps us from expressing our true emotions, deters us from fully grasping the knowledge that our experiences have imparted, and stops us from accessing the power God has made available to us.

Sometimes what we call fear is really common sense. Maybe you shouldn’t make this or that change if it will likely bring about a certain negative result, or a result that you haven’t prepared yourself to deal with. But what about the times when we’re basing our decisions on a fear that’s simply an outmoded low-belief, left over from our younger years when we fueled our lives with other people’s notions and reasonings?

It’s time to pull the mask off your fears and expose them to the light of reason and higher belief. As you think through some of the issues in your life that concern you, identify your fear-thoughts and see if they are useful to you or not.

Mustering up just a little faith to shine on some of the situations that you’re fearful about will definitely move you forward.

Excerpt from From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that lead to Joy! Copyright 2009 Esther Davis-Thompson

What Have You Been Believing About Yourself and Your Life?

As you go about trying to straighten out your life, you might be surprised to find that the culprit responsible for blocking your goals, upsetting your apple-carts and, generally, sabotaging all your efforts is . . . You. Wielding a plethora of low-belief thoughts, swinging them around recklessly like double-edged swords, we effectively slash through all of our best hopes and rip our dreams to shreds. High Places lives aren’t born of low-belief thinking. And the best thing that could happen is for us to actually catch ourselves in the act . . .
Today, examine your self-talk. What do you say to yourself all day? What kinds of thoughts run through your mind like a river of living waters, feeding your perceptions and determining your actions? Have you formulated a laundry-list of reasons why you’re stuck in Trouble? And another corresponding list of reasons why you need to stay in Trouble? Reasons like—“I’m too old to make changes in my life . . . I’m in too much debt to go back to school . . . I’ve invested too much in this bad situation to jump ship now . . . I’m needed here, so I can’t move forward . . . or . . . God won’t do this for me”—will continue to hold us hostage until we start making conscious decisions to believe higher for ourselves.

Today, see how many times you can catch yourself thinking negative thoughts about yourself. CHOOSE to believe higher about yourself and your possibilities. DECIDE that you will leave your Trouble . . . for your High Places . . . and you will miraculously be shown a way to go.

There is this thing that happens. This thing that happens in the psyche and moves all through the psycho-emotional centers of a woman. It is the transient movement of all that we believe coursing through us, throughout all of our physical, spiritual and emotional paths of Self. Throughout the very blood and cells of us. Coloring us and defining us and telling us who we are and what we will do in any given situation.

Journeying toward your High Places requires you to begin to inhabit your Highest Self. Once you have identified yourself as living in Trouble, you will have to choose to meet God on the path toward your High Places. 

You will have to begin choosing to adopt the mindsets you will need to live more as your Higher Self than as your lower, troubled, Self.

You will have to choose to defy the gravity of Troubled-life, as you have known it. 

You will have to choose to allow faith, not fear, to rule your steps. 

You will have to choose to allow your forgiving spirit to rule your mind and your relationships. 

You will have to choose to believe that your Creator-God is mindful of you, will be your strength, and will empower you to walk upon your High Places.

From Trouble to High Places: Meditations For Women Who Are So ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy! Copyright 2009, Esther Davis-Thompson