How To Overcome Fear

Inhale Courage,

Exhale Fear!

Fear, another ugly and despised “F” word in the English language that has negative connotations, and rightfully so!  How does one overcome the afflictions of fear?  With everything going on in the world today, fear seems to be immobilizing us to complacency.

I’m trying to walk through fear myself and this is the most paralyzed I’ve ever been.  Fear grabs a hold of our tender hearts and minds and keeps us from God’s best; whether it’s an underlying insecurity that we all battle against, words that hurt and leave us in bondage, fear that keeps us isolated from others, or the fear of being harmed. 

How are we supposed to handle fear?  I know I’m constantly seeking this stronghold deliverance.  This victory cannot be accomplished through our own strength (thank God, otherwise I’d lose ♥), but God reminded me today that victory will be brought about by relying on and believing in the Lord’s strength and resources. 

To claim victory over fear, I am focusing on two particular and unique passages: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty” Zechariah 4:6 and “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (fear), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (sound mind) 2 Timothy 1:7.

This brings on a whole other issue; the battle of fear requires complete surrender in letting God have total control.  My allowing God to take the lead and do the guiding takes on another form of battle regarding obedience as I pursue His direction just to walk through it blindly scared to death!  But when we love someone and know we can trust them, it should take the edge off the fear, right?  Yes!  But truth be told, failure’s subsequent repercussions could be more damaging than the battle itself.  That’s why I’m quivering.

Since we can’t deny the fear and run the other way like we want because it’s an eerie shadow after blood, we have to tackle it before more people get hurt by the enemy’s blatant disregard to humanity!  God has placed us here for a time such as this to keep this epidemic from infecting other innocent victims.

Why are we so afraid to stop evil and its infection that is plaguing our lives and the lives of many others?  Why do we shy away from getting involved or standing up for justice?  Is it because we’re so busy doing other things, we don’t want to add additional burdens onto our already full plates?  Is it the fear of standing firm on the Truths found in the Bible and our Constitution?  How about that it forces us to do something outside of our comfort zone that we’ve never done before?  Or most probable, we’re fearful of failure and what others might say (image buster), so we just expect and depend on others to defend our freedom and rights?

This enemy I’m going up against personally needs to be stopped because they’ve already hurt too many other precious souls.  We have laws for a reason, and when people with money, power and prestige feel they can do what they please without any regard for the law, even us little ‘ole grandmas (remember, I’m 5’10”) can do a lot to make sure our laws are implemented to stop crime and help protect our future generations.  It may be scarier than any horror film, but with God as the director of my story, my role and script is already written and my only part is to walk through it while trusting.  But…  Ignorance is not my bliss!

How do we learn to stand up for justice and sever the bondage of fear?  I know spending time seeking God and pressing into Him by being immersed in the Bible reminds me that God has brought me to this point and He will provide His favor and provision through strength, confidence, and boldness which will extinguish my doubts about whether I’m hearing God’s voice correctly as I struggle to move forward in obedience.

With the growing presence of evil in this world today, I believe the reason it has become so prevalent is because instead of battling these giants, we react by succumbing to fear which is paralyzing.  We forget we have the greatest advocate, Jesus Christ, walking alongside of us holding our hand (my fav ♥ Isaiah 41:10-13) so we’re not alone.  He will never leave us to battle alone.  Plus, we are equipped with the greatest ammo available, the Lord God Almighty’s power, on our side!!

Standing up against evil requires trust, commitment, and wisdom that comes from peace and a whole lot of grace and guidance from the Holy Spirit.  We cannot trust in our own strength and abilities.  I know I can’t. ♥♥  How do we tap into that power? 

Today I fasted and prayed until the Lord gave me the wisdom I was seeking that He promises when we earnestly seek and ask (James 1:5).  God was faithful and knew I was ready to crumble.  The desperation for His reassurance was evident with Him reminding me to be bold, strong and courageous through His beautiful Word found in Joshua 1:7-9, inhale courage, exhale fear, so His plan would be prosperous and successful.

I don’t know about you, but walking by faith and not by sight is easier said than done.  Oftentimes when fear rears its ugly head, I have a tendency to become so consumed by paralysis and disoriented in walking out my faith as to what I believe God has spoken to my heart.  It brings about confusion from all the second guessing.  This is where I have to remember past experiences with God where He claimed victory against a hotel for wrongdoing in their criminal behavior.  My new giants might not be a huge conglomerate, but they’re still evil and require me to step out in faith with action that I do not want to partake.

My blessed girlfriends challenge me to focus on my prior experience in claiming victory; in that it came together solely from the power and workings of the Holy Spirit.  The only thing I can take credit for is peeing my pants because I stood there with bated breath paralyzed in fear as God was performing His miracles and it was either pass out from holding my breath for so long or peeing my pants.  I fall pretty hard, so I surrendered to the latter with great relief :-).

What a beautiful illustration, that since God lives inside of us, we don’t have to freak out and cause more physical harm to our bodies or to the special peeps in our lives that stress causes.  He wants us to be of sound mind and alert so we can make good decisions while knowing He loves us and will help us overcome and navigate through these storms.  The blessings and purpose in being still, along with the benefits of surrounding ourselves with other warriors.  We are to pursue peace; and reading and applying scripture to our lives enables the Holy Spirit to consume our minds so we can walk victoriously with peace.

I am praying for each and every Beloved who is walking through fear right now. There’s a lot of it going on.  We need to lift our holy hands with one another and join in and be in prayer to rebuke this stronghold of evil that wants us held captive and paralyzed in fear.

Until next time…

 Thank you for being Beautiful You!