How to Create a Coward

During my devos last night, I read an excerpt from The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. It was especially poignant because I've been fretting quite a bit lately about what to do after graduation and such and only recently have really been surrendering it to God - silly, I know, I should have done it so much sooner! These lessons never fail to instill in me just how tiny we really are and how much we need to depend on Him!

The excerpt was titled, "How to Create a Coward," and here's just a bit of it (even though it is quite long) that I found to be powerful and kind of summing up the entire section:

Screwtape explains the techniques of temptation to cowardice:
"The point is that precautions have a tendency to increase fear. The precautions publicly enjoined on your patient, however, soon become a matter of routine and this effect disappears. What you must do is to keep running in his mind (side by side with the conscious intention of doing his duty) the vague idea of all sorts of things he can do or not do, inside the framework of the duty, which seem to make him a little safer. Get his mind off the simple rule ('I've got to stay here and do so-and-so) into a series of imaginary life lines ('If A happened - though I very much hope it won't - I could do B - and if the worst came to worst, I could always do C').... The point is to keep him feeling that he has something, other than the Enemy and courage the Enemy supplies to fall back on, so that what was intended to be a total commitment to duty becomes honeycombed all through with little unconscious reservations..."

I know my mind easily takes off on hypotheticals and it can be so distracting - 'if this happens, then this could happen and I would do this....' Because of this, it's important to give that all up to God and the knowledge and wonderful security (like being wrapped in a warm, fluffy blanket!) that all is under him.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." -Matthew 6:33-34