“Fear is a self-imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love” (Rick Warren).
“How very little can be done under the spirit of fear” (Florence Nightingale).
God has given us a purpose to be a light for Jesus. Our Creator has also given us talents and the Spirit’s guidance and power to achieve that God-given dream. We cannot allow fear to prevent us from living the victorious Christian life.
We must be good stewards of the talents God has given each of us. In Matthew 25:14-30, the master gave his servant one talent to be used for the master’s glory; unfortunately, because of fear, the servant wasted it, “burying and hiding it in the ground.” We cannot allow fear to prevent us from living the successful Christian life: “becoming the person God wants us to be and accomplishing all the goals God has helped us to set.”
Instead, we must continue to grow in our faith daily to learn how to overcome our fears increasingly. We must strive to be like David, who, through the power of the Spirit inside him, overcame his fears and the giants in his life (Goliath) to fulfill his life purpose (to bring freedom to Israel).
Achieving your purpose despite fear involves surrendering our fears and lives to God, trusting He will always be our perfect Shepherd who also perfectly loves us.
“Dangers bring fears, and fears more dangers bring” (Richard Baxter).
To survive against fear, we must adequately identify fear threats we experience daily.
“Fear is a distressing emotion, aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined”.
When the brain’s amygdala detects a potential danger threat, it activates fear through the body’s fight-or-flight response, releasing stress hormones to prepare us for action against danger. Our brain’s prefrontal cortex can “put the brakes” on this fear response if it determines that the perceived threat is not legitimate. Unfortunately, the prefrontal cortex and amygdala are often incorrect in assessing real danger threats, and we constantly experience fear needlessly.
“Fear starts with a what if and ends with a disempowering conclusion” (Mark DeJesus).
Satan likes to implant “what-ifs” negative thoughts in our minds to stir up fear:
“What if I lose my job?”
“What if my wife leaves me?”
“What if I get COVID and die?”
Our vulnerability to fear grows when we perceive the presence of love, acceptance, competency, and safety being threatened in our lives.
“Fear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time to think a moment, we would see that everything Satan says is founded upon a falsehood” (A. B. Simpson).
When we listen to fear and validate it, “fear becomes a terrorist”. The truth is, most of our fears never happen in our life, and for the small percentage that do happen, we must remember, with God’s help, we can overcome them:
“The worst evils of life are those which do not exist except in our imagination. If we had no troubles but real troubles, we should not have a tenth part of our present sorrows. We feel a thousand deaths in fearing one, but the (the Christian) cured of the disease of fearing” (Charles Spurgeon).
Instead of being controlled by fear, we must become thought warriors and take our “what-if fears” captive, reframing them into positive statements based upon the truths and promises of God. We must convince both our amygdala and prefrontal cortex that there is nothing to be afraid of.
“If you allow a thought into your mind, it will come out in your life. So, if you want to change your life, you have to change your thinking, You’ll want to shift from old lies and false assumptions to God’s timeless truth. God’s Word transforms your thinking and equips you to capture thoughts, resist the enemy, and remain centered on truth” (Craig Groeschel).
“The level of hope we live by will determine how much fear we listen to” (DeJesus).
“In any given moment, two forces are seeking to become the dominant influence in your life – faith and fear. Both portray a particular focus and point to certain outcomes. Yet they are worlds apart in what they lead to. One is based on a dreadful outcome, the other on a victorious future” (Mark DeJesus).
“God is the brave man’s hope, and not the coward’s excuse.” (Plutarch)
“God is perfect Love”, loving us more than anyone else. He loves and accepts all His children perfectly, regardless of all our sins, flaws, and mistakes. “Nothing on earth can ever separate us from His love” (Romans 8:38).
God is perfectly sovereign, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and good, making Him a perfectly trustworthy and faithful Shepherd to us. Nothing can ever happen to us unless He allows it. All things, even our trials, work together for our good and the glory of God. Every life experience of ours is always under the complete control of the sovereign God who is good and perfectly loves us.
Because of His perfect character, “God is the brave man’s hope”, for He is also our perfect Shepherd who always protects us from the danger of what we fear might happen:
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end” (Thomas Merton).
We must put our faith in the perfect Shepherd, who is sovereign, good, and perfectly loves us:
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid” (Psalm 56:3-4).
“The root antidote to any fear issue is love” (DeJesus).
Everything God does to His children flows from His perfect Love.
When we know God loves us perfectly, we don’t have to fear the potential “what-if thoughts” our brain entertains. Even if what we fear might happen, we know God is also sovereign and completely controls every detail of our lives.
“Faith, which is trust, and fear are opposite poles. If a man has the one, he can scarcely have the other in vigorous operation. He that has his trust set upon God does not need to dread anything except the weakening or the paralyzing of that trust” (Alexander MacLaren).
Love provides hope, giving us a reason to have faith. However, without faith in God’s love, fear grows, potentially leading to hopelessness.
“The foundational war going on in people’s lives is between fear and love” (DeJesus).
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).
The father’s wound has created a lack of trust in the love of Abba Father to those who failed to receive love from their earthly father. Instead of trusting in the safety and love of the Abba Father, who is also our Shepherd, many instead fear being punished by Him, similarly to how they fear being punished by their earthly father as a child. Because they perceived their earthly father as an “angry, unloving, punishing father”, they formed these same beliefs upon the character of their Heavenly Father.
Mark DeJesus says: “The reason we struggle with fear is because our connection to love has been compromised in some way. Love brings the safety we were designed for in knowing that we are protected. It lets us know that whatever we face in life, we can handle it with God’s help. Love lets us know that someone has our back. It’s the foundation that faith stands on to empower our lives.
Every place where fear enters is a place where perfect love has not penetrated yet. There is a personal history of not being loved, covered, and nurtured properly in some kind of way. Because of this emptiness, fear seeks to take advantage”.
Man has a fear problem because he struggles to consistently receive the love of the Father, possibly because of the Father’s wound. Those with such a wound must realize that Abba Father is not the same as their earthly father; God is a perfect version of Him. Once they finally realize that, and trust He is a perfect father who perfectly loves them, and embrace that fact when they face fear, that trust in God’s perfect love, will cast out fear:
“Most of our problems stem from not understanding and receiving the love of God. His love drives out the power of fear” (DeJesus).
“Feed your fears and your faith will starve. Feed your faith, and your fears will” (Max Lucado).
Trials Strengthen Our Faith Over Fear
Trials are opportunities to witness the perfect protection and provision of the Shepherd in action, increasing our faith over fear. God wants to increase our faith, so we can become increasingly more capable of overcoming future fears Satan might use to prevent us from living the victorious Christian life.
Learning to face a fear is like learning how to walk for the very first time: we do this by repeatedly taking one step at a time in front of the other despite fear, knowing our loving Abba Father is nearby, watching us, and keeping us safe when we are about to stumble.
“When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.” (Isaiah 43:2)
In Matthew 14:22-33, Peter’s faith was initially strong as He kept His focus on Jesus as Peter took one step after another toward Jesus against fear and doubt as Peter was walking on water. But when Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and onto the winds and waves, Peter suddenly began to sink as the what-ifs of fear and doubt consumed his mind. He cried out, “Jesus, save me!”, and Jesus did, and even though Peter allowed fear to take control, his faith grew as the perfect Shepherd kept him safe from danger.
“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again” (Proverbs 24:16).
Although Peter’s faith sank, almost causing his body to sink, Peter didn’t allow this failure to stop him from eventually becoming a great saint for Christ. When we experience failures in life – when we allow our fears to overpower our faith – we must embrace that God will always love and accept us the same, regardless of whether we fail or not. We also must learn from our mistakes and then forget the past, pressing onward to achieve our purpose as we continually strive to overcome our personal fears through the growth of our faith.
Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14: “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
Just as infants must work resiliently to learn how to walk, we must be resilient despite failures to grow in faith and overcome our fears. If we give up trying, it will stunt both our growth and our future potential to be a light for Jesus.
We have one life to live, so make the most of every day. Don’t let fear prevent you from becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplishing your God-given dream! Be a light for Jesus daily and win the prize someday in heaven!
Sources:
Overcoming the Fear Factor Session 03
Confronting “What If” Thinking – YouTube
The Main Mission Fear Has Against Your Life
Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex in PTSD
Winning The War In Your Mind Workbook, Craig Groeschel