3 ways to overcome fear sounds like the title of a movie we have seen many times. But the good news is that the soul-crushing and victory-preventing fear we feel can be overcome.
Why is fear so dangerous? Think about it like this. Fear forces you to lose a battle you never fought. Fear causes you to miss out on the blessings of God because you are paralyzed from moving forward in obeying God. So if you want to take back your life read on to discover 3 ways to overcome fear.
Stop fertilizing fear and start fertilizing faith
If you have ever known anyone serious about gardening, then you know how important fertilizer is.
Fertilizer can take a plant and cause it to have explosive growth when applied correctly.
The same applies to our fear. The more we focus on fear, the more it grows. So we have to make a significant shift in our thinking.
We have to take our eyes off of the object of our fear and start putting them on the object of our faith. And as we do this, something amazing happens.
Amazingly, our fear becomes but a speck in the rearview mirror of our lives. And the more we see how capable our savior is of dealing with our current troubles. So how do we practically do this?
- Consume God stories. That means focus on times when God has done the impossible. Even look for others testimony if needed.
- Stop asking what your fear is going to do to you. And start asking what is God going to do for you
- Ask in faith for God to bring peace. As you pray, God will dry up your fear. He will do this through the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
View fear as an uninvited guest instead of the guest of honor
Have you ever seen that commercial where a woman embraces a raccoon that has come through her pet door?
She treats the animal like her precious cat because she doesn’t have glasses and can’t see clearly.
This is similar to what happens when we let fear in the doors of our hearts thinking that it is the honored guest.
Soon the honored guest becomes a nightmare. God is clear in 2 Timothy that this spirit of fear doesn’t come from Him. That’s a game changer. But we see God gives us a spirit of power, love, and self-control. But the question is, how do we access it?
In 2 Timothy 1:7, it clearly says that these three qualities come from Him. So when we make God the honored guest of our life, these three traits follow. How do we practically do this?
- Pray the promise found in 2 Timothy 1:7
- Stop focusing on fear induced thoughts and start focusing on thoughts provoked by God's Word.
- Commit time daily to remind yourself God is the honored guest of your heart.
Focus on God's yes not todays test
At the heart of fear is a belief that today’s test is a hopeless outcome. Fear freezes our feet from moving towards God’s yes.
God’s yes is the blessing that He is leading us to. That simply requires obedience on our part. But fear would have us believe that obedience is a test that we can’t pass today.
As long as the enemy can make us believe that the test of today’s difficulty is bigger than the yes God has planned for us, he will win.
- God said yes to Abraham and Sarah conceiving a child. Fear made them believe the odds were impossible.
- God said yes to Peter walking on water. Fear said the test of doing it was to much
So we can starve fear from taking over God’s great plan for our lives by believing God truly can back up His yes.