Fear not

Have you ever been paralyzed with fear? Literally so frightened you couldn’t move, could hardly breathe?

I have great empathy when someone talks about being afraid. I know that some people like to do things to frighten themselves, like bungee jumping or watching scary movies, but real fear, the honest-to-goodness-sheer-terror kind of fear, is awful. In fact, in 1 John 4:18 John says, “… fear involves torment.”

Merriam-Webster defines torment as “the infliction of torture (as by rack or wheel)” – Ouch! The dictionary also calls torment “extreme pain or anguish of body or mind: AGONY.”

Agony! That is what people go through when they are in fear!

Too often we accept fear as a normal part of life, but do you think for one minute God wants us to be fearful? Of course not! Over and over again throughout the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, our loving and compassionate heavenly Father says some combination of “fear not,” “be not afraid,” or “do not be afraid.”

He understands that we sometimes experience fear, but He does not want us to stay there.

Why? First of all understand that fear is not from God. Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear …” When you’re afraid, remind yourself that God did not give you that fear.

What has He given us instead? Well, the second part of 2 Timothy 1:7 says that He has given us a spirit of “power and of love and of a sound mind.” He has given us peace according to John 14:27; “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

God doesn’t want us to be afraid because He wants us to walk in faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is the opposite of fear. Faith is a place of power that allows you to move forward with confidence in this life. Faith is the solution to any fear you may face.

When you replace fearful thinking with God’s thinking, based on the Bible, fear will lose its grip on you, and you will be set free from the agony that is fear.