Good Morning Beautiful,
There is a reason why, as Christians, we talk so much about the heart. The heart holds much of who we are as individuals. Many like to think that the thoughts drive us, but it is the heart that leads. When we start to believe in our thoughts, we begin to act on those feelings.
For example, when I was younger, I was terrified of bridges. I use to close my eyes to safeguard myself from facing the thing I feared the most. As I got older, I realized that driving over bridges wasn’t as bad. However, there was a time before fear set it. I didn’t fear bridges, but somehow, the more I thought about all the possible ways I could die while crossing over a bridge, I became terrified. Those thoughts festered into my heart, and I became the things I felt because I let those fears become a part of my identity.
When we choose to fear, we risk not being in the right state of mind. Fear will have you believing and doing things that are so far from God. Fear will have you doubt and question the path God has for you; This is what the enemy wants. When we choose fear, we are choosing a life of destruction.
What Does Fear Produce?
Fear is an anxiety-producing thought. For those of you who have never experienced anxiety, it is something that you do not want to experience. It feels as though your heart is beating outside of your chest. My experience has been waking up in night sweats–Not fun at all!
Fear can produce anxiety, but it will also cripple you. Fear will make you avoidant, and you will always feel stuck. Fear will make you feel like you have to be in control of your life (which we know is the enemy’s plan to make you think this way). The enemy wants to take power away from God. With fear, the enemy will do enough to where you rely on no one and nothing.
How to overcome fear
God instructs us to lean not to our own understanding, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). There is a reason for this. Our understanding is so far from God’s. We can only think about what we see, and it’s not much when you compare to God’s viewpoint. God sees and knows everything.
God tells us not to rely on our understanding, but He encourages us to take every thought into captivity. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, it says, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Not just some thoughts but ALL thoughts. We can not get trapped in our minds because nothing good ever comes from it.
Take today’s events with COVID-19; we are living in a time of fear and uncertainty. You have so many people who are afraid and won’t leave their homes at all, and you have some who feel invincible and think that they will not be affected by the virus. God tells us to have wisdom, but that wisdom should never try to surpass God’s understanding.
2020 is not a year we should fear! If anything, this is the time to get your hearts right (there are much scarier sins we are facing that we need to be freed from). There are forgotten dreams and goals due to you being too scared to act on anything; this is your time to move out of that state of fear and walk-in trust. God will keep you and protect you.
Fear is crippling, so the thing that we must do is face the things that scare us the most. Take the prayer of David as an example,
Psalms 139:23
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Please don’t continue to walk in fear. We don’t want to give the enemy any more footholds into our lives. We want to be victorious, and that is what God wants for us.
Reflect
- What are your crippling thoughts–the things that you fear?
- Pray the prayer of David in Psalms 139:23 and ask God to search your heart! God wants to know you just as much as He wants you to know Him.
