When my husband and I were closing on our new home, the seller nonchalantly stated,  “Oh! Did you all have brown recluses or black widows where you moved from?”

Uh. No?

She proceeded to say, “Well, they are everywhere here so you’ll want to spray your house and yard for them. I also noticed that there were usually two brown recluses in the upstairs sink each day. Just keep it in mind since I know you have little ones.”

Needless to say, the hairs on the back of my neck were sending chills down the rest of my body. I was terrified.

To make matters worse, on our very first night in the new home, I decided to spend some time in my new Worship Room. It was around 10:30 pm when I walked out of my room, and there it was. A gigantic brown recluse spider with its long, slender legs was descending down the wall next to the upstairs bathroom slowly and casually. I felt my entire body immediately tremble in fear as I yelled to my husband, “Hurry!!”

I thought I’d feel better after the spider took a sad and lonely trip down the potty, but of course I did not. Not only did I hate the fact that my husband had to take the life of one of God’s creations, but I was also convinced a brown recluse spider was hiding in every corner of the house, waiting until we went to sleep before they emerged and took their revenge on us.

My thought life only grew worse as I began imagining a brown recluse making its way under the covers of my innocent children as they slept and the horrifying trip to the hospital in the middle of the night as a result, barely making it to the ER before the spider’s poison took over completely.

This exaggerated fear of brown recluses continued throughout the rest of the night until I finally decided it was time to educate myself on the spiders, thank the Lord for His creativity in making these poisonous creatures, and ultimately resist the enemy who had set up camp in my thoughts.

Did you know, many brown recluse bites leave a small red mark that heals quickly, and the vast majority of bites do not leave scars? These unattractive spiders are also extremely shy and want nothing to do with the giants they see shadowing over them. They run to shelter where they can stay as far away from human contact as possible and will not usually bite unless provoked. Really provoked.

Now, I’m not saying everyone needs to give these creepy crawlers a big ‘ol hug, but I am saying that Satan will have his way with misinformation, ignorance, or a preconceived fear that has already been occupying our minds. His favorite game to play is fear, and trust me when I say, he has perfected his technique. His goal is to paralyze his prey (us) in fear in order to distract us from the Peace that transcends all understanding. 

He is so skilled in manipulating fear that he has successfully kept Christians under the captivity of sin from the beginning because of it. Adam feared missing the knowledge of good and evil so he disobeyed God’s orders, Elijah feared Queen Jezebel would take his life so he hid himself in a cave, David feared Uriah would find out about Bathsheba so he ordered Uriah to be conveniently killed in battle, Peter feared the Pharisees so he lied about Jesus three times, and on and on and on.

Fear is the enemy’s way of taking a situation and convincing us that we’re about to be sucked into a never-ending vortex of the worst-case-scenarios. For me, it hasn’t just been with brown recluses. It has been with anything and everything that has taken me by surprise, presented itself with misinformation or deception, and threatened any part of my well-being. Even the slightest idea that something or someone could compromise our comfort sends us into this entrapment of exaggerated fear. Does this sound like something you’ve experienced, too?

When I made the decision to address this new fear of brown recluse spiders in the late hours of the night, I was letting fear know that it was now captive to me, and I would be the one in charge. By acknowledging the brown recluse spiders are, indeed, God’s creation, I was able to replace fear with the knowledge of God’s infinite wisdom. When I thanked the Lord for creating these spiders, even though I still didn’t fully grasp the reason why He did, it allowed me the opportunity to celebrate His creativity. When I decided I wasn’t going to let this exaggerated fear rule this household or my mind, I was then able to set my mind on things above and not on earthly things.

The truth is:

There is no fear in love.
Perfect love casts out fear.
God is love.
(1 John 4:8,18)

In other words…

There is no fear in God.
God casts out fear.
God is love.

So, why do we continue to allow exaggerated fear to rule in our hearts and hold us in captivity apart from the goodness and faithfulness of God? We have let our human desire to control our fears be the avenue for our very destruction. The truth is, we cannot keep brown recluses from showing up in our home, but we can decide how we choose to handle those situations, and more importantly, how we surrender them to the Creator.

It’s time we allow our fears to stand up against the truth of our God and let Him establish our faith. Faith that always triumphs over fear.