Fear is one of the most crippling things in life. It causes us to fall back in the face of opposition or danger. It prevents us from taking advantage of great opportunities that could alter our lives for the good. It leads us to play it safe when anything worth having involves some level of risk.
Too much of life is dominated by fear. Fear to move. Fear to try. Fear to love. Fear to hope. Fear to risk. Sure there is room for a healthy dose of “fear” that, hopefully, causes us to pause and assess the risk-reward ratio before we do something completely foolish, but what I’m talking about is that level of fear that prevents us from even such an assessment.
2 Timothy 1:7 teaches that God hasn’t given a spirit of fear, but love, power and a sound mind. Each of these things take something very important: boldness. It takes great boldness to love, to exercise power and to think straight, putting behind us stifling thoughts and irrationality that prevents us from truly living; from fulfilling all that God has for us. In this verse, Paul tells us that those things are provisions from God. They are gifts given to us through the Holy Spirit of God to those who are His.
In whatever form fear may try to creep into your life, remember this verse of promise from God that has become very special to me as I engage in battle with my own fears:
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will hold on to you with my righteous hand.” Isaiah 41:10
If this is true and we determine to take God at His Word, how could fear ever have any power over God’s Children? Today is the day to conquer fear in your own life, once and for all, through the power of the Holy Spirit of God who has already defeated it!
