Fighting the Fear

We live in a world dominated by fear, ever since Adam and Eve hid from God because they were afraid (Genesis 3:10). The media gobbles it up and feeds it to as many people as possible. It runs rampant on social media, no matter how much you may try to avoid it. Your coworkers, friends, and family may speak it--sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, and sometimes nonstop. And with what's going on in the world today, when words like "pandemic" and "outbreak" are used more frequently, it's not hard to see just how prevalent fear is.

Now, of course there's nothing inherently wrong with expressing your fears. It can be healthy to vent or get it off of your chest. The question is, are you letting that fear control and dictate your everyday life? Your honest answer to that could very well change your life.

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First off, let's discuss why fear is not something to be dwelled upon. God told us people over and over and over again, "Do not fear." It's hard to find a consistent number just by Googling, and it also depends on which translation you're using, but I believe it's in there 200 times, possibly more. God was obviously serious about this, knowing that we humans are quite susceptible to fear.

What does fear do to us? It does many things, but let's just cover a few of the major points:

1. It causes us to turn our eyes off of God and focus on the natural. This one is huge. We have the Creator of the universe on our side, the One who breathed life into us and desires to be with us for all eternity. Yet we'll focus on what's going on around us and totally freak out, despite serving a God who is bigger than anything our enemy and the world throws our way. Case in point: is God bigger and greater than a virus? There is no hesitation in my answer. Yes, He most certainly is. So why should I have to fear it? He promises us health and protection so many times in the Bible. One of my favorite examples of such is in Psalm 91:7, where it says, "A thousand may fall on your left, ten thousand may die on your right, but these horrors won't come near you" (The Voice).

You see, we tend to focus on the problem and not the Problem Solver. We focus on the mountain and not the Maker, on the storm and not the Savior . . . on the devil and not the Deliverer. (And I'm preaching to myself here too, okay?) God gave us a standard as to how measure our thoughts and our focus in Philippians 4:8 (The Voice): "Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy." He doesn't want us to keep our eyes on the negative things in life; we are to keep our gaze on him. Doing so will push back the fear.

2. It causes us to speak things that affect our life for the worse. There seems to be this idea for some people that what you say and what you think don't have an effect on you. They think the idea of "mind over matter" doesn't make sense. But we are created in the likeness and image of God, right? And how did He create the world way back in the beginning? He spoke. Our words are very telling about what we believe, think, and focus on. As for the mind side of things, Proverbs 4:23 (ICB) says, "Be very careful about what you think. Your thoughts run your life." Your deep-rooted heart beliefs also have a huge part to play in what you say and do. After two blind men told Jesus that they believed He could heal them, He said, "Become what you believe" (Matthew 9:27-29, The Message).

Have you ever noticed how people's lives follow their words, thoughts, and beliefs? Some say that they'll never get ahead in life, and they never do so long as they keep confessing it. Others complain about their family or their spouse all the time, which results in continuously negative relationships. Heck, even saying, "I'm always tired," true as it may be, will result in one being tired all the time. There are other ways you can see this too. For example, I know a girl who has dated a few times in her life. In all those instances, I've always seen it end badly, with the guys hurting her in very similar ways. Why is that? I obviously have no right to say, because I don't know her heart. But there's something there that is preventing her from finding a decent dude.

The long and short of it is, what you think, say, and believe are intricately tied together, whether you like it or not. The enemy would love nothing more than to see fear come into your life and render you helpless because you used your own God-given power against yourself. Don't let it dominate your life. You can choose today to speak against it.

3. It finds a way in because we have normalized it and have become acclimatized to it. Fear has a way of slipping into our minds and hearts if we aren't diligent in guarding them, and that's never a good thing. The sad thing is, we don't necessarily recognize it right away--some people never do. Would you ever say you've been stressed, anxious, or worried? Society likes to give out fancy names to new diagnoses, but truth be told, it almost always links back to fear. Let's say I'm stressed about a performance review at work. I may use the word stressed, but the reality is that I'm afraid that I didn't perform good enough. Or what if I'm living in constant worry because of all the news and updates about the virus these? It means I'm afraid of it and what it may do to me or my loved ones. (This is not to say that I don't think we should take the virus seriously, but we should also approach it knowing that our God is mightier and not letting fear control our reactions to the situation. Besides, I believe fearmongering on the media's part has made the whole thing far, far worse than it should be.)

This is where we need to turn to the Bible and seek out more promises. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV). "The thief approaches with malicious intent, looking to steal, slaughter, and destroy; I came to give life with joy and abundance" (John 10:10, The Voice). "'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Eternal, 'plans for peace, not evil, to give a future and hope--never forget that'" (Jeremiah 29:11, The Voice). I'd definitely encourage you to read the whole of Psalm 91 and 23, maybe even in a translation you don't normally read. Different phrasings might mean more to you personally than others.

Fear should not be your norm. God never intended us to live that way, and it does cause our bodies to react poorly and break down quicker over time. He is the Prince of Peace, and no matter what we're facing, we can experience it for ourselves. There was a time last year where I was under constant stress at work, partially because others were putting it on me and partially because I put it on myself. I didn't deal with it properly, and it led to a much worse, much darker situation later on. I don't talk about it a lot because it was the worst time of my life, and I thank God I've recovered from it. But if I hadn't accepted the fear back then, how much different would have things panned out? Never let fear be normal.

Now what about the solution? I think I've actually covered a lot of it when discussing the problem and what it does to us. But there's another part that I have yet to mention, and it's found in what He commanded Joshua after Moses died and Joshua was to lead the people (Joshua 1:9, The Voice): "This is My command: be strong and courageous. Never be afraid or discouraged because I am your God, the Eternal One, and I will remain with you wherever you go." That is extremely powerful. The key to remember here is that you do not have to be completely free of fear in order to be courageous. Rather, being courageous means you act despite still feeling that fear. That plus knowing God is always by your side will help you to fight back the fear. This will be something you'll have do many times in your life as you stay ever-vigilant, but it's better than just rolling over and letting whatever happens happen.

The first step is, of course, often one of the hardest, and that is to admit there is a problem to begin with. Once you do that, you allow yourself to work toward taking action and defeating the fear. So with that, I'll leave you with a portion of NF's song "Mansion" to ponder as you determine what you will do, dear friend.

Fear came to my house years ago, I let him in

Maybe that's the problem 'cause I've been dealing with this ever since

I thought that he would leave, but it's obvious he never did

He must have picked the room and got comfortable and settled in

Now I'm in the position it's either sit here and let him win

Or put him back outside where he came from, but I never can

'Cause in order to do that I'd have to open the doors

Is that me or the fear talking?

I don't know anymore