You Can Overcome Your Fears
When I am afraid, I will trust in you. Psalms 56:3
Is fear causing you to hide from somebody today? Your boss? Your husband or wife? Your strong-willed child? Your grouchy co-worker? When God asked Adam, ‘…“Where are you?”, he replied, “I hid…I was afraid”…’ (Genesis 3:9-10). And we’ve all been hiding from things ever since. We hide behind forced smiles, agreeable words we don’t mean, and social rituals we detest. Or worse, we hide behind things we do believe but don’t express because we are afraid of what people might think or say. We try to avoid the pain of confronting someone, and the emotional energy we’re afraid we’ll have to invest in cleaning up afterwards. Short-term it may be easier to act as if things don’t bother you, or pretend to agree when, in reality, you disagree. But long-term it doesn’t work, because peace isn’t the absence of discord. When we remain silent in order to avoid confrontation, we just end up avoiding something far more important: relationships. For example, when we don’t speak up on the job because we fear making waves, we end up resentful, alienated from our fellow workers, and maybe losing an opportunity to make things better. When we’re afraid to confront our marriage partner (and this should be done in love, not anger), we end up emotionally distant. When we refuse to share our faith because we’re afraid of being ridiculed, we lose the opportunity to bring hope to someone who really needs it. So rise up and say, ‘When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You’. Confront your fears, come out of hiding and start living.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, Your love casts out fear; help me rely on that love when facing my fears. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
Tim, you make it sound so simple: His love casts out all fears. Then why do I still fear stuff every day? I know He loves me, but His love doesn’t seem to cast out my fears, not all of them anyway. It still seems like such a mystery…sometimes we sense His love and direction, and sometimes we don’t. When are we to move forward trusting He is leading us, and when are we to be patient and wait upon the Lord, trusting He will lead us? Seems like the Holy Spirit’s leading should be stronger, that if we take time to pray daily about a certain fear, that the Spirit should override that fear with love, but that doesn’t happen–it’s suppose to, but it doesn’t…and then I feel like I’m left hanging.