Two kinds of fear, one driving us to God, another holding us back. Phobia fears immobilize and paralyze us. These fears turn into worry, anxiety, and stress; overtaking our minds. The enemy dances around all the what-ifs, should-haves and if-onlys, waiting for us to join him in the chaos and turmoil of our own understanding.
I worry, YES! I worry until I get the phone call that my loved ones arrived safely to his/her destination. I am afraid to open that bill. I am fearful of the doctor’s news. I am locked in terror when the phone rings in the middle of the night. I worry with so many things...
But there is only one remedy for the crippling affects of fear. FAITH. In our English language, faith is both a noun and a verb. The noun faith is what we believe to be true. It’s not a difficult thing to believe in the existence of God or that His words are true for others. But when we are faced with deep fear and anxiety, or disappointment in our lives, we have a hard time believing those words are true for us. Fears consume our thoughts and we are left drifting, unstable, and tossed about.That’s when the verb matters. Faith without action is dead. Active faith is alive. It is lived out in our actions.
Fear and faith cannot coexist. Faith is sure and certain. Faith believes that God knows all things, sees all things, and is always working for our good, even when it doesn’t seem like it. Fear is about feelings. Faith is about belief. Fear stops us while faith propels us. The hard reality is that fear is unbelief.
When we choose faith, believing God and resting in His words, we are choosing Him and His ways over anything our mind wants us to think. He teaches us to look with spiritual eyes, not at what our life looks like in the moment or what our feelings are saying. Even when all else seems to be falling apart, He still says to look to Him, to trust Him, to believe Him.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:6-9 NLT
““I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
John 14:27 NLT
“Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.”1 Corinthians 16:13 NLT
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NLT
“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”
Hebrews 11:1 NLT
