Last week in a course that I am currently teaching, Living in God’s Presence, we looked at the life of Moses and how he fled his place of honor as an adopted child of Pharaoh’s daughter. He saw a Hebrew man who was a slave, being beaten by an Egyptian and enraged, he killed him. Moses had to learn to deal with both his anger and his fear. He ended up in Midian from the palace to the field as a shepherd. The story has a great ending but that is for another time.
In preparation for this lesson, I began to think about practical ways to deal with our fears. We all fear something at one time or another:
Financial fear
Children
Our job
Our health
Fear is real and it can be paralyzing. Fear can cause us to fight or flight. The trouble is that fighting fear wears us out and fleeing fear is only a temporary solution. It comes back again. So how to deal with fear is our topic for today. How do we kick fear to the curb?
- Recognize that your fear, though real, should not define your actions in a negative way. Healthy fear is another story. If you see your child going to the stove then you want them to be fearful when there is a hot burner. But unhealthy fear– fear that rises within, when it is out of your control, must be dealt a death blow.
- Fear tends to start in our thoughts and then works its way into our hearts and actions. Use the Word of God as a sword to cut away any lies, and help you to agree with God’s promises. Meditate on Scripture that offers a God solution rather than focusing on what you cannot control.
- When fear knocks on the door of your heart, close it quickly before it makes its way from your thought life to your heart and then keeps you up at night worrying.
- Don’t let fear control you. You control fear by remembering that God is fighting for you; He is for you.
- Remember that God’s perfect love casts out fear so when fear comes a knocking… close the door in his face by wrapping yourself in God’s love blanket. If you cannot get in touch with God’s love because your fear screams louder than anything else, call a friend and pray together. Always easier to stand tall when you have someone standing with you. (or maybe has to stand upside down with you to help you get perspective- good friends are like that:)
Friends, the enemy does not play fair. His MO is to rob and steal and he loves to cause us to be fearful.
BUT GOD…
Has not given us a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7) Hallelujah!
