Consternation, the Creeps, and Chickenheartedness

I have always struggled with fear. Apparently, a lot of people do, because my thesaurus listed 38 good synonyms for the word fear. There are lots of things to be afraid of. Take your pick: Wild dogs, public speaking, torture, responsibility, the dark, children, clowns, natural disasters, death (with its many sub-categories), kidnapping, spiders, bullying, need I go on? Now you're wondering why I just brought up all these phobias! Why am I writing this article? You're cowering in your slippers!

Obviously, it's good when you jump away in fear of flames. That's God's alarm system. People with literally no fear don't last long.

I'm talking about dwelling on it, even if it's pretty rational. How can you exterminate the roaches by worrying about it? This only leads to anxiety. What a difficult truth! But stewing on fear comes from not trusting in God and is a sin. Yup. If it feels like I just stomped on your toes, I gave mine a nice tromping, so you're not alone.

Even Jesus' closest followers struggled with fear. For example, Jesus walking on the water. Peter had remarkable faith, but he became anxious because he took his eyes off Jesus. Seeing the wind and the waves, Peter panicked and stopped trusting Him. Sister, there is turmoil in the world! As soon as we take our eyes off Jesus, things go downhill quickly.

God knows our scrawny faith and understands our struggles with fear. So He put TONS about how to trust Him in the Bible. Some of my favorite verses are, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" - John 14:27, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." - Matthew 6:34, and "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." - 2 Timothy 1:7

But fear is still a feisty opponent, so I've learned to battle it by:

• Singing hymns and Christian songs

• Quoting or reading scripture

• Reading biographies and stories of Christians who relied on God during scary things

And so important: pray, girl, PRAY! I like to pray out loud if possible.

• Tell Jesus what is attacking you

• Ask for relief from the spiritual powers of darkness making you afraid

• Ask Him to help you trust Him

• Speak God's attributes

• Pray for others in worse situations than you

• Praise God for whatever safety or comfort you have

The goal here is not to become tough negative cynics-which is easy to do. At this point, I don't know if it's possible to get an abatement from fear. But God does offer peace many times in the Bible, and I want to believe it. You and I can't do it, but guess who can? Little by little, we can give things to Him: The Almighty God who conquered death itself, who was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin!

(Hebrews 4:15) Be encouraged, God is mighty and strong, and trust me, He really can handle it!