How many times in a day are you confronted with fear? A situation that makes you feel afraid, nervous, or uncertain? Though we may plan our days, we cannot always predict what will happen at any given moment – does that leave you feeling uneasy?
Some say fear is faith in the wrong thing meaning that when you succumb to the spirit of fear, you are saying you believe that which you are afraid of will happen. If you are travelling in an airplane, you might be scared at the possibility of that plane having a crash. In that moment, you can choose to feed or starve this fear. Feeding it looks like thinking about previous plane crashes, looking up statistics on them, shaking with nerves anytime there is a turbulence or just cancelling your flight entirely. Starving the fear looks like confessing and believing that God is your source of protection, if you have flown before – look at all the times you landed safely at your destination, look at the number of planes a day that DO land safely without a crash. The more you do this, the more you overcome fear.
Fear presents us with a choice – the choice to believe it or to reject it. We choose what we believe and what we meditate on, we might not have control over the circumstances, but we can always choose our response.
As a Christian, the best antidote to fear is knowing that God is with you. God is with you every moment of every day, but it is up to you to acknowledge that. Again, we have a choice to embrace God’s presence with us or to ignore it and be consumed by fear.
At the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, I was confronted by fear and, initially, I gave in to this fear. I work in healthcare which meant that I had to go out to work throughout the duration of the pandemic and could not work from home like many did. This alone left me feeling very scared, vulnerable, and liable to contract the virus. Instead of starving this fear, I began to feed it – I watched the news constantly, obsessively looked at death rates and kept worrying that I was exposed due to my working environment.
I listened to a message from Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church titled “I’m Still Scared”. He spoke in such an open and honest manner directly into the situation I was currently facing. I believed that God could protect me, I believed that I was taking all the necessary precautions but, I was still scared. However, listening to this message, I changed my perspective and started to starve the fear that I was feeling – I stopped listening, watching or reading the news, I stopped checking the statistics and I meditated on God’s promises for protection. I was aware of the pandemic going on, but I refused to obsess over it to the point of living in fear. The more I did this, the more my faith rose and as it rose, the more I believed in God’s divine protection.
This is just one example of a time that I have been confronted by this spirit of fear. God has told us in His word, 365 times to be exact, not to be afraid. Fear does not come from God; He constantly encourages us to live a life free from fear. To do this, we must rely on Him and believe in His promises. The choice is yours to make but today, I encourage you to feed your faith.
“Don’t panic. I’m with you.
There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.
I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.
I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.“
Isaiah 41:10 (MSG)
In this verse, God tells us not to fear for HE IS WITH US. God is with you – the One who made the world, the One who made you, He is with you. The same way that children often feel safe around their parents is the same way you should feel safe because God is with you. I like the MSG version of this verse; it says God will hold you steady – how many times do we feel unsteady in times of uncertainty? During this pandemic, many have lost jobs, many lives have changed forever but, even in this uncertainty, God will keep you steady. He will keep a firm grip on you – even when your grip on Him may be loosening, He will keep a grip on you.
I encourage you to change your perspective today. Feed your faith and starve any fear. Rise up and be encouraged – God is with you; you have no need to be afraid. I pray, that any area of fear in your life will diminish and your faith will arise today.
Transformed by Abba 
A wise woman once told me that fear was the thing we must walk around to do our job. She told me this when she saved my life in the Gulf War. We can do this because we have God living in us (John 14:17).
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