Fear:
- a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain etc., whether the threat is real or imagined
- anxiety, solicitude
- anticipation of the possibility that something unpleasant will occur.
Fear cripples the thoughts, rendering one impulsive, reckless and misguided. Fear also paralyzes, weakens and/or disables a person.
Whether your fear paralyzes you or causes you to be reckless and impulsive, it cripples. It claims your ability to think and act logically.
Look at the past few weeks with the current pandemic: what do you see? How have many people responded to this?
Fear. Impulsive, illogical fear. Is there a real threat? To a certain extent, yes. But the greater threat is your fear.
In the past few weeks, I have faced some fears that I never had before: “Will my husband have work? Will there be enough money to meet all our needs? How will this change our future? What kind of world will my kids grow up in?”
They started out as simple thoughts, but then I began to think deeply about them and pretty soon I was all twisted up inside with “what ifs”, “buts” and “maybes”. It was only a day or two before I suddenly realized “I am afraid. I have allowed fear to take root in my mind and heart.” Paralyzing, misguided, illogical fear.
Right then and there, I made a mental switch in my mind. “I will not fear. No matter what happens, I will not be crippled by fear.”
In my Bible reading right now I’m listening through Psalms. Wow, what a perspective change! If we stay in the Word, make it a part of our lives and meditate on it, we have a straight path to fearless living. God is not a God of fear. Where God is, there is no fear. There is no anxiety.
2 Timothy 1 the apostle Paul is encouraging his protégé Timothy to fan into flame the gifts that God had given him; it seems young Timothy is discouraged and unsure. In verse 7 Paul drops the truth bomb: “For God did not give us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Whatever you do in this time, refuse to let fear take root in your mind and heart. Find some verses from the Bible that can carry you through this time. Adopt them as your own, write them down, say them to yourself often until the words are threaded through the fabric of every thought you entertain.
When you are fearful and you imagine possible scenarios and all the things that could go wrong, ask yourself this simple question: “Did I put God in that scenario? Did I place God in those possibilities?” It changes everything when we put God in the equation.
Check out some of these verses:
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed [fixed, anchored] on Thee, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4:18a
Perfect love is also perfect, whole-hearted trust.
What or who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come (the unknowns) nor powers, not height or depth, or anything else in all creation, will be able to sperate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31, 35-39
Remember, the opposite of fear is perfect love, whole-hearted trust.
Know it, own it, live in it.
Refuse to let fear take root in your heart and thoughts. Be a trend-setter of fearless living.