How to Overcome Fear

How to Overcome the Spirit of Fear (From pages 93-95 in my book Don’t Be Surprised)

If you are prone to worry, fear and anxiety, the enemy will hit you with first person inner thoughts like, “we don’t have the money for this,” “I’m tired of waiting on God,” “I need to find a way out of this,” “What if I can’t find another job,” “I am out of my mind if I think I’ll find a Christian woman/man as ____________ [fill in the

blank] as she/he is.”

What possesses us NOT to trust in our loving Father’s best plans for our lives and relationships?

Why do we fear that God won’t come through for us as he does for others?

We are often fearful because others have let us down, betrayed us, used us, robbed us…The more “hurts” we’ve experienced, the more “hard” we become. That’s why cultivating intimacy with God is difficult for many Christians. They project their significant male or female role model’s negative behavior onto Father God.

If you’ve been wounded by an authority figure, your heart may have closed bit by bit until you came to trust no one but yourself. In shying away from intimacy with others you may be projecting rejection that eventually shuts you off from intimacy with everyone around you.

Fear of pain is a BIG hurdle to get over, but God can heal your wounds. He can also heal your memories and free you from self-condemnation and nagging guilt. It’s a lack of faith in God’s goodness that skews our vision about how to live the Christian life… Paul gives us God’s answer to our dilemma.

Let’s take a practical look at 2 Timothy 1:7 which we discussed briefly in the last chapter. Paul says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline (nlt)”.

Do you hear what Paul is saying to you?

• God didn’t give you the spirit of fear!

• So if God didn’t give it to you it had to come from the devil.

• If it is from the devil it’s not God’s best for your life.

• Since God loves you completely he is more than willing to set you free from the spirit of fear.

• God does this by helping you to focus on what he has done for you, is doing in you and wants to do

through you.

• Understanding the power of the Holy Spirit within you liberates you from this oppression so you can:  Cultivate a sound mind that births self-discipline that leads to self-control. That will free you to deeply love God, yourself and others.

When you focus on what you have going for you, rather than on what’s coming against you, victory is close at hand. In Timothy’s case, Paul had to get a bit tough with him and tell him to grow up! He says to his spiritual son, “So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the Gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace” (2 Timothy 1:8b-9a).

Cultivating intimacy with Father God brings his presence into your heart in increasing measure. As you draw closer to him he fills you more and more with his presence. Fear has no foothold in a totally consecrated heart. Fear is literally displaced by love. In comes the love of God, out goes fear. When fear has no foothold in your heart, you are free to be all God wants for you. As Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”