I have struggled with fear as long as I can remember, but praise God fear no longer controls my life! Though the devil has tried relentlessly to use fear to stop me from loving and serving the Lord with all my heart and fulfilling my life’s calling in ministry and from following Jesus day by day, I have had victory after victory when it comes to fear for one simple reason.
JESUS. And herein lies the message. The fact God tells us over and again in the Bible not to be afraid leads me to believe He expects we will be afraid at times and that we simply need to know how to handle the fear when it comes. Instead of hating and condemning ourselves when we feel fear which only makes everything worse, I believe we simply need to turn from the problem to the solution. The problem, fear. The solution, GOD.
The reason I have had so many victories concerning fear is because I refuse to bow down to and worship and follow fear but instead humble myself before God and worship and follow Him. God gets the glory for my victories over fear, and the Lord is the one to whom I beg you to turn – when you are afraid and in all things!
When fear comes, what can we do? Cry out to God! Pray, pray, pray! Turn to God! Turn to the Bible! Turn to fellow Jesus followers for prayer and encouragement if / as / when the Lord leads us. AND CHOOSE TO OBEY GOD DESPITE THE FEAR. So shall we victoriously, marvelously, and blessedly crush the fear under our feet!
Despite fear, I ministered on death row twice, was on the road for over 5 years full-time for ministry, faced countless scary and dangerous situations, shared about Jesus with a murderer just released from prison, ministered to a dying man in his hotel room, drove up and down mountains though they terrify me, walked across an enormous bridge though I was petrified, was assaulted in New York City while there to do streets ministry and returned to my streets ministry work despite the fear that followed the assault, and have done a zillion other things I was so very scared to do. ALL BECAUSE OF JESUS.
When we turn from our fear to the Lord and put our trust in Him, when we cry out to God for all we need, when we acknowledge our fear but refuse to bow down to it, when we choose to obey God rather than to obey what fear is telling us to do, God gives us all we need to be victorious.
Feeling fear? Cry out to God! Oh, cry out to the Lord God almighty, AMEN!
“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.” Psalms 56:3 NKJV
“But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”” Galatians 3:11 NKJV