"The wise man in the storm prays God, not for safety from danger, but from deliverance from fear"
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
No matter how serene and unaffected a person may seem, there isn’t anyone who is totally impervious to fear; everyone gets afraid sometimes. It is therefore not what you feel (fear) but what you do with what you feel. I’ll get to that in a moment.
For many years, I suffered from the debilitating effects of fear. It ruled my life so thoroughly I could not see anything else. Because of this emotion,
- I could not realize my full potential
- It stole from me; my joy, my dreams, so many things I did not even know about
- I lost the friends I could have had. Because I did not want to get rejected, I did not give myself the chance to be accepted.
Countless books and theories abound by the so-called experts on how to deal with fear. I tried them all; self affirmation, mind control et cetera. The question is, do they actually work? Well, maybe they do. For a couple of days. Then the fear breaks through the banks of the mind and floods the soul. Again.
In dealing with fear I discovered certain things:
- That there was One who is greater than my greatest fear
- That I could get in touch with Him and He was willing to help me.
Of course I already had a relationship with Him, which began when I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord over my life. - I got into the habit of literally giving him my fears.
I spoke what I was afraid of into my palms, clutched them tight and told God about it, gradually releasing them and my fist to Him. It helped - Then I got to know what the Bible said about fear and kept repeating it to myself.
Practically:
- cut out a cardboard sheet to the size of playing cards
- Write down on Bible verse on fear or being afraid on each card. You can do a keyword search on Christianity.Com or Bible.Com
- Read one card everyday. Take it everywhere with you and constantly pull it out to remind yourself.
One thing you do need to remember is that God keeps His promises. If he said He will free you from all your fears, then he most certainly will. You have to have faith though.
Note: He did not say you will never have fears; they just will not have the power to paralyze you anymore.
