In this world, which often frightens us, we have a hard time feeling safe, secure, peaceful and free from worries on all sorts of topics. We try to remain positive, but Satan fills our mind with negative anxieties, in hopes of debilitating us and ending our fruitfulness for God’s Kingdom.
Fear is a potent emotional response to an imagined or very real threat. It intensely effects our spirit, soul and body. God intended fear to protect us by motivating us to use caution, and to accelerate our adrenalin for a jolt of energy during emergency situations.
A problem arises with fear when it sidetracks our thoughts and controls our life. This may cause a lack of appetite, or sleep, or concentration, or vocation or social life, or educational opportunities, or our enjoyment of life. It may also affect our health and mental wellbeing.
We may fear natural disasters, health pandemics, hidden tumors in our body, failure of the function of some bodily function, etc. There are other issues that cause fear to rise up within us, such as public speaking, taking a test, asking someone out on a date, our child’s participation in some potentially dangerous activity, etc.
Fear, anxiety, worry and other negative emotions cause us to take shallow breaths, our heart rate to increase, acid to sour our stomach, perspiration to break out on our body, our muscles to tense or to weaken, our imagination to run wild, our mood to darken, sleep to escape us, etc.
The remedy for fear is multifaceted. We start by identifying our fear and what is causing it, as well as sorting out the problems contributing to this emotion. We dissect these issues and look for a resolution for them. If we cannot resolve the problems, we can make a commitment to go ahead with what God’s Spirit is leading us to do, in spite of feeling afraid.
God will strengthen us to do His will, and He will hold us up with His strong hand of righteousness (Isaiah 41:10). He will come to us in our plight to see us through every trial; therefore, we can be strong and reject fear (Isaiah 35:4, 43:1; Joshua 1:9; Psalm 34:4). Jesus gives us His peace within us that surpasses anything this world has to offer to us (John 14:27; Matthew 6:34).
Prayer:
Father God, we live in a mixed up and chaotic culture right now, with threats all around us; yet, we have no need to be afraid, to worry, or to allow anxiety to overwhelm us, because You are with us wherever we go (Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 41:10). Thank You for giving us Your power, love, and stable mind to strengthen us during frightful circumstances. We want to enter Your rest now and to abide there always.
We give You our individual struggles and challenges, and we seek Your wisdom on how to navigate them successfully. You calm our emotions, give us clarity in our thoughts, lead us by Your Spirit, and comfort us with Your Word. Thank You for showering us with love, joy, peace, patience, comfort and wisdom during our troubling times.
Thought for the Day:
The Lord is our light, salvation, and stronghold, and we can put all of our anxieties into His faithful care; therefore, neither life, death, angels, demons, supernatural powers, current or future trials, or any other created presence can separate us from God’s love in Christ; so we have no need to fear anything that mankind can do to us.
- 1 Peter 5:6-7; Romans 8:38-39; Psalm 27:1
