Teach Me To Not Fear
Emotions are interesting. You cannot see them, but you can feel them. Emotions are those feelings like love, fear, anger, sadness, joy, confusion, shock, excitement, frustration, enjoyment, disgust, calmness… The list goes on and on.
These emotions are installed in our humanity from day one. They are not something you have to learn or be taught how to feel. You just feel them. The tragedy of that is you will feel emotions such as fear. Even though it is normal, fear can be hard to navigate.
There is a healthy fear, where you might be afraid to burn yourself if you grab a hot pan straight from the oven. Then there are fears that take your mind and heart captive, such as worrying a tree is constantly going to fall on your house.
This blog post will be a little more transparent into my heart as fear has been something I have battled with more frequently for the past year or so.
There are a lot of days I will have a fearful thought that I try so hard to push away, and it just doesn’t seem to leave. I will have scary scenarios play out in my mind that I have to pray about and rebuke because living a life of fear is not the way God wants us to live.
As I said previously, you do not have to be taught to fear - it is an emotion that comes with being human. However, I do believe that you can be taught to not have fear, so you can live a life of peace. There are many mentions of “Fear not” or “Be not afraid” in the Bible. I believe this is God’s way of telling us that although we were born with this emotion, it does not have to hold us captive.
I remember waking up in the middle of the night as an older teen, and I was so afraid that I was not going to make it to Heaven. I cried and prayed, trying to touch God because I wanted to spend eternity with Him. Although it is a good thing to want to spend eternity with Jesus, my fears had taken over my whole body. I was sobbing and trying to gasp for air. I remember walking to my parents room and telling them everything I was feeling. They prayed over my mind so that I would have peace, and I eventually fell back to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, we were getting ready to go somewhere. I opened my Bible app on my phone, and the suggested verse for that day was Isaiah 12:2. I still remember how I felt as I read that verse, and to this day, it is a verse that I hold close to my heart.
Isaiah 12:2 says:
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
I cannot truly put into words the peace I feel from knowing that God is my salvation. He also is my strength and my song. I do not have to be afraid, I just have to trust.
I mentioned battling fear over the course of the past year. It is a daily decision to walk with and trust God through every situation and obstacle. No matter what fears you are battling today, I encourage to ask the Lord to help you. He alone can teach you to not fear.
You are not battling this alone. Reach out to a Godly friend or someone who can help pray with you. You are not called to live a life of fear. You are called to live a life of peace.