Fear Fighting – Four weapons to fight fear

As a young girl, I used to think I was fearless.

This changed in my teenage years, a time when I struggled through terrible teasing, awkward growth spurts, and some health challenges. Scars of which followed me into womanhood.

Over the last decade, I have seen God work on my heart and my mind. He has helped me revisit those past fears and address them in a healthy, God-centered way.

Even in this season of staggering fear and panic, the Holy Spirit is reminding me that we have the tools to fight fear, that we have the tools to fight the uncertainty and the doubt.

 

Fear fighting – Four weapons to overcome fear

These four weapons have been helping me fight fear and doubt this season

Fear Fighting Weapon – Love

“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us…there is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear…since fear is crippling, a fearful life…is not yet fully formed in love.”

1 John 4:17-18(MSG)

I have been learning that fear cannot thrive where there is love.

This is not about the mushy-mushy love that excites the flesh but does nothing for the soul. But the deep and meaningful love that is sacrificial and true.

The love that God has for each of us and the love he has empowered us to have for him, for ourselves and for others.

It is this love that helps me move past myself by removing the focus from me to God and to others.

God has not given us a spirit of fear. Through the Holy Spirit, we have been given a gifted with love, power, and a sound mind. We are not to be ashamed of him or opportunities to bear his witness but to continually fan the flames of love and communion with others.

This love provides a hedge of protection over me where I know that nothing can separate me from God’s love for me: not mountains, nor deep blue seas, not life and certainly not death. Romans 8:38-39

It is this same love that teaches me that all things will work for me, including terrible situations, financial challenges, unexpected diseases and losses, when I love God and are called to work in accordance with his will. See Romans 8:28

These are not just nice-sounding words or Bible verses we say to feel good.

I believe these words are filled with the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit. These words bring life, they bring wholeness and power by reason of God’s love and grace.

Sis, let the love of God fill your heart and overflow into every area of your life.

 

Fear Fighting Weapon – Prayer

‘The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.’

James 5:16

Prayer has saved my sanity.

This is no exaggeration.

Communicating with God has kept me grounded and has been a constant reminder that it is God who protects.

It has given me room to take everything to him and most especially, it has given me an opportunity to intercede for others in this season.

In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), our Savior and Lord taught us some key ingredients about prayer. We are to:

• Praise God for who He is
• Declare that God’s kingdom(heaven’s agenda) will be done on earth
• Ask for provision not just for ourselves but for others ‘give us today, our daily bread’
• Ask for cleansing and the strength to forgive
• Ask to be delivered from evil and the wiles of the devil
• Proclaim that God’s will and purposes will stand no matter what

Praying this way has helped me focus on God and on his majesty.

And even when I don’t know what to pray or seem too tired to keep saying the same things, I lean on the Holy Spirit.

The Bible reminds us that the Holy Spirit is our comforter, our helper and will guide us into all truth.

This truth is Jesus.

He is this Truth that builds up our spirit and gives us peace.

Sis, perhaps you are tired of praying the same prayers. Can I encourage you to lean into the Holy Spirit, let him help you this season, let him take your hand and guide you back to Jesus, the author, and finisher of your faith.

The apostle Paul expatiates on the role of the Holy Spirit in our prayers:

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays with us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.”

Romans 8:26

 

Fear Fighting Weapon – Gratitude

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

James 1:2-3

Cultivating a grateful heart has been a game-changer for me.

Being able to thank God through the good and bad, in seasons of lack and abundance has allowed me to continually look beyond my circumstances to the One who has my life in His hands.

One way I cultivate gratitude is through journaling.

This gives me an opportunity to appreciate God’s faithfulness on a regular basis.

Journaling also serves as a record for the days where it seems nothing is working. I’m able to look back to how good and loving God has been and all the things he has seen me through.

And at the end of each month, I would usually list all the blessings, miracles and testimonies for that month.

I just did this a few days ago and I’m still in awe of all the things God did for me this past month some of which I had forgotten.

God is so good.

There is the popular hymnal from the 19^th century, which goes thus:

‘Count your blessings name them one by one

Count your blessings see what the God hath done.

Count your blessings name them one by one

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.’

 

Remembering our blessings and all the Lord has done for us is a powerful way to build our faith and preserve our peace.

The Bible says:

“They conquered him (the devil) completely through the blood of the Lamb and the powerful word of his testimony.”

Revelations 12:11a(emphasis mine)

Our testimonies are potent.

They are reminders that we serve a faithful God who is able to save. These testimonies encourage us and encourage others.

I pray you never forget to count your blessings.

For more on cultivating a grateful heart, you can read this post here.

 

Fear Fighting Weapon – Humility and total dependence on God

Let me start with a little confession: I struggle with pride.

Who am I kidding?

Pride is a huge monster I constantly battle and I’ve found out that pride is a very close cousin of fear.

They often work hand in hand.

Humility is a weapon that has helped me combat pride (and fear). I am able to access the grace of our Lord by being humble. This is not just something I’ve experienced but well documented in the Bible:

“God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble”.

James 4:6

Real humility is a daily practice, not a one-off experience.

We learn that our life is not about us but about Jesus.

This knowledge allows us to strip off the constant need to prove ourselves, to show that we are something we are not.

We learn to ascribe our sufficiency and deliverance, not to ourselves but to the God who made heaven and earth.

Humility allows us to look at life from a godly perspective and not from a self-induced perspective.

“May God teach us to believe that to be humble, to be nothing in His presence, is the highest attainment, and the fullest blessing of the Christian life.”

Andrew Murray, Humility 

Humility is the key to total dependence on God because we realize we can do nothing in our strength. We realize that it is God who works in us to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

We learn, without a shadow of a doubt, that we are nothing without God.

 

God has equipped us to fight fear

‘Fear not’ is mentioned about 365 times in the Bible. The need to combat fear is so important that God thought you remind us 365 times, for every day of every year.

But I’ve realized that it goes deeper than this.

Fear keeps us from truly living.

It stops us from making the most of our relationship with God because it often curtails our faith and obedience.

Imagine if fear had kept Abraham in Ur. If he had failed to do what God wanted of him because He was scared.

Now imagine all the things that fear has stopped us from doing.

God is calling us to leave the seat of fear and step boldly into the work he has for us.

For some of us, God is calling us to start projects, build businesses, create solutions to pressing problems and generally be a light the world needs this season.

I don’t know about you but I have decided that fear can no longer keep me down.

This season, I am fighting fear with heavenly weapons knowing that He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world.