Paralyzing Your Fear

Fear

A four-letter word that holds more power in it than we care to admit. If you’re an avoider like me, you pretend it’s not there. If you’re braver than most, you’ve convinced yourself that you’re immune to it. But the thing is, no one is. It affects all of us. No matter how macho you think you are. No matter how “fearless” you think you are. Everyone is afraid of something.

Sometimes it’s simple. For instance, I’m afraid of fire. Any kind of fire, whether it’s a bonfire or a small flame lit on a match. It all freaks me out. When I was a kid, the fear was almost irrational. I remember waking up in the middle of the night during Christmastime, running down the stairs to unplug the tree because I was afraid it would start a fire in the house.

Borderline crazy, I know.

Maybe for you, the fear is rollercoasters, airplanes, the ocean, spiders, clowns, or the dark. These are the easier fears, the kind we don’t necessarily have to face every day.

But then there are other kinds of fear. The kind that dig a little deeper. They latch onto you. The fear of being alone. The fear of failing. The fear of change. The fear of letting go. The fear of moving on. The fear of the unknown. The fear of fear.

It’s these that lead us down a path of anxiety and depression. They leave this spiderweb of thoughts in our heads and all of a sudden, nothing makes sense. We become paralyzed, afraid to move in any direction. So, we stay put. We build walls, sturdy walls. The kind of walls that are much harder to tear down than they are to put up. We close ourselves inside this box, blocking out the rest of the world. Nothing can harm us in here (except maybe that pesky fear).

Nonetheless, we feel a sense of safety inside these walls. We’re content to stay inside forever, and why wouldn’t we? It’s easy here. There are no surprises. No risks to take. Nothing can wreak havoc or cause destruction.

We’ve chosen to live our lives inside our comfort zones. And while that sounds "comforting", our comfort zones can be much more dangerous than we could imagine. They teach us to take the easy way out.

It’s here where nothing grows. All around us things are void of life. But we’ve convinced ourselves that this is the way it’s supposed to be. This is safety.

Fear, I’ve found, is a really good liar.

I’ve also found that we’re the ones telling the lie. Afterall, our fears are created by us.

However, there’s a small glimmer of hope in that statement. Because if we have the power to create it, we have the power to destroy it.

Though that, like most things, is much easier said than done.

The Bible is filled with scriptures relating to fear. We’re commanded to fear not. Were told to put our trust in Him. We’re promised peace in times of fear.

• “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” – Isaiah 41:10

• “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27

• “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made in perfect love.” 1 John 4:18

It’s almost as if God knows us better than we know ourselves. Crazy right? He knows the power fear can hold over us. He knows it’s always going to be there to stop us from fulfilling His plan for our lives.

That last verse has always been my favorite. Perfect love casteth out fear. And what do we know God as?

Love. But not just love. Perfect love. And the best part about this is that God chooses to live within us, despite every corruptible bone in our bodies. He chooses us. Because of this, that same perfect love lives within us.

Perfect love casts out all fear, right? This goes right back around to the fact we have the power within us destroy fear and its crippling effects.

Paralyze your fear instead of letting it paralyze you.

None of this means it’s going to be easy, in fact it won’t be easy at all. This is why so many people choose to simply accept their fears and live with them. Because they don’t want to have to fight it out.

And it will take a fight. Maybe a few fights.

What do I mean by fighting?

Prayer. Worship. Faithfulness. Trust.

This is how we fight our battles.

Everyone’s heard the phrase, “what the enemy meant for evil, He meant for good.” God can use your fear to bring you closer to Him, and to bring you closer to who He’s called you to be. Because if you’re scared, you’re going to be praying more. You’re going to be praying with a passion that you wouldn’t have had if you weren’t facing those fears.

Sometimes God let’s us go through things because it’s the only way to get us to talk to Him.

He doesn’t always answer our prayers in the way we want or expect Him to. His ways our higher than ours, and because of this, His answers to our prayers confuse us. At first, it seems like He’s not answering us at all, and we become frustrated. We question why He won’t bring us out of a situation we’re facing.

But there are times when the only way out of something is through it. So, sometimes He tells us the only way to get over our fears is to face them. And you’ll find that He’s given you the strength to do it. And maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t really that scary after all.

This is where growth begins. When you break down the walls of your comfort zone and walk out into a world with things to fear on every side. But you do it anyway. One step at a time.

You’re scared, but you take another step.

You trip, but you take another step.

You get hurt, but you take another step.

You mess up, but you take another step.

Growth is a day-to-day process. We don’t see the change as it happens, but one day we turn around and realize we’re miles away from where we once were, from who we once were. We’ve made this journey without even noticing.

We didn’t think we could do it, but God knew. He always knew. He’s the one who gave us the endurance to take the journey in the first place.

It’s why He calls us deeper still, out into the stormy water. Without Him, we’d sink. But we never have to do anything without Him.

Right now, He’s calling us into another storm. The world we live in has changed drastically. Fear has never been more evident than it is today, and rightfully so. We’ve come to live in a dark place, and as the storm clouds roll in, it’s only going to get darker. The wind’s been blowing its warning to us.

But the thing is, even if I feel scared, I’m not worried. The storm is the one that needs to get ready, not us. Most of us have been getting ready for this our entire lives. We’re coming with a storm of our own. And we’ve got victory on our side.

Come what may.

Fear won’t stop us anymore.