Fear. Part 2.
In Part 1 of Fear, we looked at Understanding Fear, Types of Fear, and the Effects of Fear. It is important to understand that if you have chronic symptoms of fear, anxiety, and stress, especially over an extensive period, it is time to seriously decide if you can continue, or want to continue to live like this and to understand that eventually, your fears can cause you to be chronically sick, depressed and discouraged. Fear, anxiety, and stress also prevents you to grow and in fully becoming who Christ has meant you to be.There is no space for faith when you are filled up with fear and there is no space for fear when you are filled up with faith. Faith is the antidote to fear. Fear is a deadly faith killer. Share on X
Fearless Heroes
Daniel
²⁰“O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God whom you serve continually, able to deliver you from the lions? ²¹Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever. ²² My God has sent His angel, and shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: because before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no wrong.”
Daniel 7:20-22
Can you imagine the fear levels a person must feel before being thrown in a den of hungry lions? Can you imagine yourself being in a situation like that? Do you trust God so much and believe His promises to such an extent that you can walk into a den with hungry lions -fearlessly? How are things you fear in comparison to what Daniel was facing?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
¹⁹ “Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his appearance was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; therefore he spoke and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. ²⁰ And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. ²¹ Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, and their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Daniel 3:19-21
Two things from this passage struck me. Nebuchadnezzar was fearful! He heated the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated, he was fearful that the normal heat would not be enough to kill these three men! How incredible is that! Secondly, he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Why did he need the most mighty men in his army to bind them? The only reason why he deemed this necessary was because he was scared, he was fearful of them (and their God!)
²⁸Then Nebuchadnezzar spoke, and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who has sent His angel and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.
Daniel 3:28
Is your problem with fear because of the compromises you make on God’s Word and commandments? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to compromise! Are your problems with fear and anxiety because you worship idols and your refusal to always put God first and to serve Him and Him alone? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went into this furnace fearless because they knew God is their everything! Is God your everything?
Esther
¹¹All the king’s servants, and the people of the kings’ provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except to such as which the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.
Esther 4:11
Esther completely trusted God to protect her from the king and to make a way for her. She knew her life was on the line, yet she risked it to save her nation. What would you do in her situation?
The Dimensional Consequences of Fear
Fear has far-reaching consequences on different dimensions of our bodies.
Emotional Dimension: Fear causes people to develop the following emotional effects: Spoiled, Bedevil, harsh, dominating, manipulative, irritated, criticism, degradation, sharp tongue, rant and rave, unreasonable, short of temper, aggressive, and perfectionism.
Spiritual Dimension: Fear has the power to destroy your love, happiness, peace, long-suffering, meekness, trustworthiness, humbleness, and self-control.
We should strive to live a life where we are filled with the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…”
If you had to give yourself a score of five for every fruit of the spirit, what would your total be out of 45?
The Spirit of Fear destroys the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Physical Dimensions: Fear causes people to develop the following physical effects: Headaches. Migraines, High Blood pressure, Stomach ulcers, backaches, arthritis, allergies, sinus, skin problems, hair falling out, heart attacks, spastic colon, asthma, etc.
Four Keys to uproot the Spirit of Fear
Key 1
You have to ADMIT that you have a problem with fear and then take a quality choice to DO SOMETHING about it! You have to make a decision to be rid of fear and stress in your life and be willing to make changes to completely eradicate… Share on X.
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?
Psalm 118:6
Key 2
If you suffer from fear and stress there are two major areas you need to work on in your life:
Your faith in God and all His promises He made to you that you need not fear, I have included a list of Bible Scriptures for you to memorize and to help you in dispelling your fear.
The more you confess these Bible verses, memorize them and eventually, start to believe them, the more you are going to find fear and stress dissipating and being dispelled in your life. As you dispel fear and stress you will see a dramatic change in your ability to develop the Fruits of the Spirit, and not just developing them but living a life where these fruits are recognized by others in your life.
Key 3
Develop trust in the promises of God!
How do you develop trust in God? – Through faith!
Where does faith come from? –
So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17
Faith comes from hearing God’s word, the more you read and confess out aloud God’s promises concerning fear, the more you are going to believe them, the more you are going to replace the fear with this newfound faith.
If you are fearful, print out the Bible verses I compiled to fight fear, confess them loudly, memorize them and soon enough you will start believing them and completely eradicate your fear!
Key 4
Show perfect love. As we discussed in Fear Part 1. Perfect love casts out fear!
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18
The Cure for Fear
God is and should always be the source of your peace and healing of whatever you might suffer from.
…that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
1 John 1:5b -6
I want to write this verse like this:
…that God is light and in Him is no fear (darkness) at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk-in fear (darkness) we lie and do not practice the truth.
In other words, if you live and walk in fear, anxiety, and worry, you do not have fellowship with God, the relationship you have with God is not right and not the way it should be. Either through ignorance or by choice, you are not believing God’s promises in His Word.
His instructions are clear:
Casting the whole of your care – all of your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all – on Him, for He cares for you affectionally and cares about you watchfully.
1 Peter 5:7 (AMP)
We just can’t seem to let go and let God. Surrendering ALL our anxieties, all our worries, and all our concerns into His care. We just don’t seem to think He is capable of taking care of our problems, fears, and worries. We rather carry it all by ourselves and let God take care of more serious problems in the world.We think God has more serious business to take care of than our fears and worries. God will not tell you to do something you cannot do. You can cast all your cares upon Him Share on X.
Jesus said – So I tell you, don’t worry about everyday life – wherever you have enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn’t life consist of more than food and clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds. They don’t need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to Him than they are. ²⁷ Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not. ²⁸And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, ²⁹yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. ³ºAnd if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t He more surely care for you? You have so little faith! ³¹So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. ³²Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your Heavenly Father already knows all your needs. ³³And He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. ³⁴So don’t worry about tomorrow.
Matthew 6:25-34
You cannot add a single second by worrying, in fact, worrying makes you sick and steal your precious life. You only have one life, why waste it being fearful, anxious, or worrying about things you can do nothing about most of the time? Birds don’t stress, you are much more important than birds, Jesus died for you, not for birds, if He takes care of them, how much more do you think He cares about you and how much more do you think He will do for you? What does your worry change? How do you change things, prevent things by being anxious or fearful? Worry could be defined as wasting today trying to figure out tomorrow! Share on X I want you to think back on your life, all the times you were fearful, worrying and stressed out and think about just one instance where that fear, worry, or stress bettered or changed the situation that you were in through your worry stress or fear. Please leave a comment, and tell me about it!
These two verses say it all: ³³And He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. ³⁴So don’t worry about tomorrow.
That is the cure for all fear, worry, and anxiety! He WILL give you ALL you need IF you live for Him AND MAKE the Kingdom of God your PRIMARY concern.
Are you living for Him 100%?
Are you making the Kingdom of God your primary concern?
He promised. He said HE WILL, God never goes back on His promises! If you do not have everything you need, you are not living for Him and you are not making the Kingdom of God your primary concern. I know it’s harsh and hurtful to hear this, but the answers are right there in front of us if we only choose to believe it, and then live it.
Surrendering your Fears
How do you surrender your fears, worries, and anxieties upon the Lord?
“Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7
God wants you to cast your cares upon Him because He loves and cares for you. If God asks you to cast your cares upon Him, He means it, and it also means that it is entirely possible to do so. He cares about you deeply and does not want you to live a life of fear and anxiety. God never said you will not face problems, obstacles, or storms in life. Problems and storms will come, but He does promise to faithfully take care of you and deliver you out of every difficult circumstance. (providing that you share your problems, fears, and anxieties with God, and surrender them to Him to take care of, rather than going at it yourself!!)
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of all!
Psalm 34:19
The Bible tells us that the storms of life will come to all of us (Matthew 7), but if we build our house on the rock, by being a hearer and a doer of the Word, the storm will not shake our house. We won’t even know it’s passing by.
You might not know how to handle your fears, stress, and anxiety, but God does! If you are a regular visitor to the hurtfixer, you will know that I am a big fan of you keeping a journal or a notebook and jotting things down. In the days and weeks to follow, start writing down all your fears, anxieties, and things that stress you out or that you are worried or concerned about. Then, go into your room with this list and pray to God deeply and sincerely, say something like this:
“Father, I have this and this problem/ fear/ anxiety/ stress – I surrender it to you completely, I can’t handle it, and don’t want to carry it any longer, I ask You to take care of it and sort it out. If there is a part that I have to play, please show me. I do not know how You are going to sort it out, but I am deciding to confidently trust in, lean on, and rely on You with all my heart and mind. I am not going to rely on my insight or understanding (Proverbs 3:5). I give these problems to You once and for all. I thank You that I don’t have to worry or be anxious about them anymore – it is in Your hands.”
Once you have prayed for these things, burn, shred, or throw the paper away. The problem no longer belongs to you anymore. The problem/worry/stress still exists, but it is up to the Lord to sort it out now, to make a way for you.
One thing we need to understand, once you have surrendered your problem/worry/fear and anxiety, IT IS NO LONGER YOUR CONCERN! You cannot worry about it ANY LONGER! Worrying about it means you have taken it back from the Lord’s hands, and told Him, “No, I can’t trust you with this Lord!” If you are still trying to look around for solutions to your problem or trying to figure out what you are going to do, you have nullified your prayer, you have taken back what you have surrendered to the Lord. He is not going to solve it for you anymore, He will not sort it out as you asked when you surrendered it. The thing is when you have ownership of your problem, He can’t do anything about it. As long as you hold on to them by continuing to stress, fear, and worry about the problem, as long as you try to figure out how He should solve them or try to help Him work them out, He doesn’t have any of them – YOU DO! (and then we wonder all the time why God is not answering our prayers!)
As Joyce Meyer says, you may not know how it’s going to work out, but sometimes you just have to be satisfied with knowing the One Who knows. You may have never thought of it this way but when you worry you have a pride problem. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord. The way we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God is by casting ALL our cares on Him. A proud person will say that they will do it their way; they are proud and not humble themselves before the Lord by trying to overcome their problems themselves. Joyce Meyer says, “The proud man is full of himself. The humble man is full of God.” The proud man worries, the humble man leans on and depends on God. So, start trusting in God more than you trust in yourself. Repent for being a god to yourself. Being a god to yourself means you have control of your life and He doesn’t. You do need to do your part in a trial, but do not try to do God’s part, the load is too heavy to bear, and if you’re not careful, you’ll break under the weight of it.
“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”
Psalms 55:22
That is a very powerful promise from the Lord! All you have to do is cast your burdens and worries on to the Lord, and HE WILL sustain you!
“Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame”
Romans 10:11
If you put your faith in God about all your fears, worries, and stress, you will never be put to shame! God will always rescue you! You can overcome and dominate all your circumstances with the words of your mouth! Remember speaking to your problems, fears, and worries – not about them! Tell your problems and fears, “Be removed and cast into the sea”, and resist your fear! The more you confess your problems and fears the more it will bind you and control you!
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.
Philippians 4:6
God says here, “Don’t worry about anything, but with every problem you face, with everything you fear, everything that makes you anxious, give it to me with thanksgiving. Thank me for taking care of it once you prayed!”
If you are living in fear and are afraid, then you are not trusting God. If you knew and believed that God is going to protect you, then you will never fear or be afraid. If you have faith in God, then you will not fear. Your faith comes from the Word of God.
So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Romans 10:17
If you have a fear in your heart about anything find a scripture that promises you protection or provision and read that, the fear will go and you will be filled with faith.
I truly hope these Two-Part Series on Fear made a difference in your life. I would love to hear what you thought about it and what you got from it for your life.
