OVERCOMING FEAR AND EMBRACING FAITH: (A story of Courage, Questions, and Unshakable Hope).
CHAPTER SEVEN: A QUIET ENCOUNTER.
Eliana did not know how long she remained on the floor.
Her tears had slowed, but her hands were still open in front of her, empty, surrendered, no longer trying to hold everything together. The desperation of her prayer still lingered in the air, fragile and sacred.
She had expected… something dramatic.
A sign. A voice. A sudden rush of certainty.
But the room remained still.
The hum of the ceiling fan. The faint glow of the lamp. The ordinary sounds of night.
And yet, something was different.
The panic that had gripped her chest for months, the tight, breathless fear, began to loosen. Not all at once. Not loudly. But like a knot gently untangling, thread by thread.
A calmness settled over her.
Not excitement. Not emotion. Peace.
Deep. Steady. Undeniable.
Eliana lifted her head slowly, her tear-stained face quiet. She could not explain what was happening, and that was what made it real. Nothing around her had changed, but something within her had.
The questions were still there, but they no longer felt like threats.
The doubts had not vanished, but they had lost their power to accuse her.
For the first time, she did not feel like she was reaching into emptiness when she prayed. She felt… heard. Not by sound, but by presence.
A gentle thought rose in her heart, not in words, but in knowing:
You don’t have to be unafraid to come to Me.
Eliana drew in a slow breath. The fear that once shouted now sounded distant, like noise from another room. It wasn’t gone, but it was no longer in control.
She realized something that changed everything.
Faith was not a feeling.
It was not confidence.
It was not the absence of struggle.
Faith was choosing to trust even when certainty did not come with fireworks.
All her life, she had watched faith from the outside, in her father’s sermons, her mother’s prayers, the church’s worship. She had admired it, repeated it, performed it.
But tonight, on the floor of her bedroom, faith became personal.
Not inherited.
Not borrowed.
Not expected.
Chosen.
She wiped her face and sat up, leaning against her bed. The silence in the room no longer frightened her. It felt full, not empty. Still, not distant.
She whispered again, softly this time, not from panic but from peace.
“I’m still afraid sometimes… but I want You.”
And for the first time, that felt like enough.
Eliana understood now, courage was not loud. It did not always look like bold declarations or perfect certainty. Sometimes courage looked like a girl on her bedroom floor, choosing to believe again after breaking.
Fear had not disappeared instantly. She knew there would be days it would try to return. Maya’s questions might still come. Doubts might still whisper.
But something had shifted forever.
Fear no longer defined her faith.
It had led her to it.
The battle inside her had not ended, but the outcome was no longer uncertain. A quiet strength had taken root, deeper than emotion, stronger than doubt.
And in the stillness of that ordinary night, Eliana experienced what she had been searching for all along:
Not answers.
Not proof.
Presence.
Thank you for Reading 💜
CHAPTER EIGHT. . . Stay Tuned!
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