Let me begin by saying my main point up front:
Fear cannot live in the same space as faith.
I have been holding on to this thought all week. Either we live from a place of fear or we live from a place of faith. There simply is not room for both in our spiritual house.
Our spiritual house is my way of referring to believers in Christ who are the temple (the dwelling place) of the Holy Spirit. The key is allowing the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and empower us to live a spirit-filled life.
I believe that the enemy of our soul is on assignment to keep us fearful because if we are, our mission to glorify God is minimized. When we live a faith-filled life, we shine even in dark places and others see the Lord.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good work, and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16)
Fear steals our light. Fear takes up valuable real estate in our lives, causing our lights to be dimmed by fear’s bedfellows — anxiety and stress.
Now on to what we are to do about it. Jesus gave us the solution:
Perfect love casts out fear. (I John 4:18).
Jesus is the only One who can drive out our fear, and He does this with HIs love. But that can be problematic for some of us if we never felt loved; if we feel unworthy of HIs love or if we do not know how to receive His love. Here are some ways we can overcome fear by learning how to receive God’s love.
- Be honest and admit if you do not feel worthy of the love of Christ. Perhaps you have done something that you are ashamed of, and even though you have asked for forgiveness, you still feel that you don’t deserve His love. Shame is a strong emotion that bars the door to our hearts. Recognize this is what is going on and ask the Holy Spirit to help you forgive yourself. Ask a trusted friend to pray with you. Seek counsel and begin the process of dislodging shame from your spiritual house and replacing it with God’s love.
- Trusting the Lord to deal with your fear may be a stretch. Again, seek counsel and prayer to find the source of your inability to trust. Perhaps you have had to deal with someone who betrayed your trust. Seek to deal with the pain, forgive (not saying that what happened was ok), but free yourself from the prison of unforgiveness.
- Recognize that the process of ridding yourself of fear can take time. Be patient with your progress. Celebrate both your big successes and your little successes. You may find freedom and then fall back into old patterns. Understand that the Christian journey is not meant to be done alone. We need each other, so do not isolate. Get the help you need.
Fear and faith are not co-equals. Fear is always subordinate to faith because faith is not only a gift from God; faith is the power of God.
Friends, make space for God; draw near to the One who is willing and waiting to cast out your fear and fill you with faith.
Joanne
