Some days I am just full of it.............FEAR

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." 2 Timothy :7

FEAR…..Fear influences many of our decisions. Fear amplifies our imagination in a bad way. We become “the worst-case scenario” queen/king. Fear even tries to prevent us from moving forward in obedience to what we sense God calling us to do.

We can do what any wise believer would do….pray. Pray against fear. Pray that God will take away our fear. That fear will leave us alone. That fear will vanish. That fear will be far from us. However, we must realize that those prayers would probably require us to live in a bubble, limit our interactions with people, and never attempt anything that could be considered risky and quite possibly never leave our house. But the truth is, until Christ’s return, fear will always exist on this earth. We live in a scary world where bad things happen. One look at the news headlines makes that clear.
 
John 10:10 tells us that the enemy "comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” One of the primary ways he does this is through fear. The enemy’s intent is to keep our eyes riveted on our fears and stop us from trusting God. Stop us from making wise decisions. Stop us from believing things can change. Stop us from pursuing the seemingly impossible dreams in our hearts.

Instead of praying that fear will be far from us, we can ask God to give us strong, bold and courageous hearts (Joshua 1:9) when fear comes near.

Instead of asking God to take away all fear, we can ask for His grace to run toward the big, scary things with great courage (1 Samuel 17:48).

Instead of praying that fear will leave us alone, we can pray that when we are afraid we will trust and have confidence in God (Psalm 56:3).

Instead of asking God to make all fear in our lives vanish, we can pray that His peace which surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and supersede all fear (Philippians 4:6-7).

Our Most Gracious Father, help us to not be paralyzed by our fears, but when we are afraid, help us trust in You. In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.

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