Have you ever wondered why some people are irrationally afraid of spiders and some are not? What about a fear of heights? Some people are afraid to approach the railing at the Grand Canyon, and some people walk right up to the edge, where they lean over to look. Of course it is wise to take care around spiders and heights, but people can actually be frozen with an illogical fear. What is fear all about and why do we each struggle with it in a different way? I think we can all agree that fear is a tool the enemy uses to distract, disturb and destroy anything of value in our lives.
When my husband died suddenly and unexpectedly, I was left with a sixteen-year-old son, a massive “Dream Home” mortgage and a profound fear of the future. I was paralyzed by the “movies” I played in my mind of what might happen to me and my son as we tried to survive without a husband and father. It wasn’t until later that I realized, I was afraid of things that hadn’t happened and probably would never happen. I was allowing the “what ifs” of the enemy to take up too much space in my mind.
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When I began seeking the Lord for freedom from this debilitating fear, He showed me some very fundamental things and gave me a logical process for walking away from a life of fear. First, fear is not from God. When we identify a fearful thought, we know it is from the enemy. Second, because fear is from the enemy, and he is a liar, fear is a lie we are not obliged to listen to. Third, we can replace the lie with truth from the Word of God, and flood our mind with a peace that passes all understanding. Because I am a methodical thinker, the Lord gave me this answer in a very methodical structure. I can tell you, it absolutely changed my life.
Let me encourage you to try this process for several days and watch what the Lord will do. In the beginning, you may need to consciously walk through each step, sometimes saying each step out loud to encourage yourself. After some practice, it becomes easier to grab that fearful thought as soon as it arrives and make it submit to the Word of God. I promise, the end of fear is near. You can be free from fear because God defeated fear for us and because His Word is true.
Walking free,
Karen Conrad
