I’ve struggled with fear since childhood. Now, I’m not telling how old I am but let’s just say I’ve been an adult for a little while 😊 Fear has stalked me, though, masquerading behind other emotions and even manipulating religious ideas to conceal itself. What have I learned? It is one of the hardest things to overcome but God can make us win.
The significance of fear as a challenge for human beings is shown by the many times the Bible comforts and encourages us not to be afraid. A friend of mine said we are told not to fear 365 times in the Bible! Now, I didn’t count them myself 😊 but I know that God’s encouragement to us not to fear are many. The Lord told Abraham not to fear, He told Joshua not to fear, He encouraged David’s soul not to fear, He told Paul not to fear…Fear is, in fact, a very real experience that all of us will have and we can only overcome it by trusting in God’s love, power and the disciplined strength He brings to our minds.
The truth that so many powerful men and women in the Bible faced this emotion and God’s Spirit kept tenderly encouraging and comforting them so that they wouldn’t give in points to the fact that it is one of the oldest, universal and most wickedly effective tools of the devil to get us down, distressed, discouraged and ineffective. Now, we know very well that as a natural emotion, fear helps us to react to threats and trouble by spurring our bodies into ‘fight or flight’ mode. That’s natural. But guess what? Many of the troubles that we face won’t disappear when we run or put up our best fight. The threats that we sometimes face are things that could actually destroy us – violence, sickness, persecution, severe mental and emotional pressures…how will fighting or fleeing help us? No. It is only the power of God that can help us at those times. As David said in Psalm 56:3 “But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in You” (NLT).
Let’s go even further than the fear we feel when we face real threats – think about anxiety. Sometimes our negative experiences push us to a point when we are not only concerned about a real threat facing us – we begin to worry about things that may happen. We have the ‘flight or fight’ response going on even when we don’t have clear evidence of danger. Our hearts are worried, uneasy, unhappy and at times, filled with dread. It’s a painful state to be in. It’s a state I know only too well. And guess what? These anxieties may be triggered by things that we can neither touch nor see – someone’s anger or disapproval, worries about failing, worries about not being good enough…the list goes on.
How can we be free? Medical science has some recommendations 😊 I’m not a doctor or psychologist, though so I won’t attempt to speak on those! What I do know, though, from my experience, is that allowing God to reveal the root cause of our anxieties is important to being free. What do we fear the most? Why does it bother us? One day, after a particularly painful, tragic experience, I asked the Lord to remove the fruits of fear from my life. You know what? He gently told me that before there is fruit, there is root! Over a period of weeks, He opened up old wounds from nearly 20 (yes, 20) years before. Then, one day, as I walked in a shopping mall, He told me “Before there is root, there is seed”. He spoke to my spirit about exactly how the seed of fear became planted in my heart as a little girl.
How am I today? Not perfect…but genuinely strengthened by the Holy Ghost to perceive when fear is attacking me and to fight back with His help. Also, God is doing something wonderful in my heart. He is teaching me to trust how much He loves me, how faithfully present He is with me and that He will stick with me through the very, very worst times of my life. You know what is happening? I am gaining the confidence and assurance in Him that I was thirsty for. I believe that as 1 John 4:18 tells us “Perfect love casteth out all fear”, God is doing just that in my life. Yes! If the Almighty God can do this for a fear junkie like me, He can do it for you. In fact, He can break the power of your most painful weakness – whatever it is – if you trust Him! No stories, no pretense – just plain old truth. His Spirit breaks the power of our worst and gives us the glory of His loving best.
Voyce - Truth Live 