How to overcome our fears. Worry, anxiety, and fear are common emotions to us all. These are uncomfortable feelings that eat away at our insides, steeling our appetite, sleep, energy, and happiness. These reactions to circumstances, rob the sufferer of the freedom to enjoy life. Worry, anxiety, and fear dull the mind and destroy our peace and joy. Learning the secret of how to overcome our fears is essential if we are going to live a stable life.
How to Overcome Our Fears: Covid 19
This has been a year of enormous shockwaves across our planet. We all have been exposed to situations that have caused extraordinary worry, anxiety, and fear. Many individuals seeking ways to alleviate their fears are falling back into old habits to comfort themselves in this time of extreme distress. Overcoming our fears is at the forefront of most people’s minds.
Covid Fallout
Thousands of individuals have lost their employment and struggle to be able to provide for their families. Worries about not meeting rent or mortgage payments have kept individuals on edge. Loneliness plagues seniors who have not been able to see their children and grandchildren. Many have succumbed to depression as mental instability has rocked their world. Suicide rates have soared. Countless people have lost loved ones to COVID-19 and wonder why God would allow their parent, spouse, or child to die alone without having the comfort of close family members.
"What If" Fears
Fears of “what if”, flood nearly everyone’s mind. What if my child with health challenges gets this virus? What if my husband dies, leaving me to provide for and raise our children alone? What if my workplace closes and I can’t find a job? When the words, “What if” pop into your mind, what normally follows? What is your, “What if”?
How to overcome our fears: Fear is a Learned Emotion
Fear is not an emotion that we are born with. A young child who is the object of love and protection will not be familiar with worry, anxiety, or fear. These emotions are a learned response to disappointments and emotional pain. Often children watch the emotions of parents and learn their reactions to situations. These fears then travel with the child into adulthood.
Those Resurfacing Fears
Adults who struggle with excessive fear are reliving emotions from previous experiences; usually childhood trauma. For example, if a child is abandoned by a parent, they will most likely fear being abandoned by their spouse. If their parents struggle financially, the adult-child will later fear not having enough to feed his or her children or pay the rent.
Irrational fears are caused by a situation that parallels or triggers previous emotional pain. These feelings move forward and add to the emotions of the present experience, intensifying the responses to present circumstances. Such emotions become extreme, powerful, and uncontrollable.
Progressive Emotions
Worry feeds anxiety, and anxiety grows into fear.
These emotions are the enemy of change. Individuals may not be happy with their circumstances but fear of the unknown, causes them to resist change.
Worrying about “what if” keeps them from doing anything about their situation. Anxiety is their habitual response to anything out of the norm. The danger you know is less frightening than the one you don’t.
Fear of Rejection & Failure
Fear is the crippling emotion that prevents you from reaching beyond your comfort zone. Fear keeps individuals from social activities, close relationships, and employment opportunities.
Most people don’t achieve their full potential or realize their dreams because they fear failure. One must come to the place where they tell themselves, “I can cling to my fear and go nowhere, or I can step out in faith and go anywhere God leads me.
The Antidote for Fear
There’s a lot of talk these days about developing a vaccine for Covid 19, to prevent people from getting the virus. So I’m sure some people might wish they could just go and get a vaccine to prevent fear, especially if they live with constant fear. But I don’t think they would want that. What they want is an antidote to fear.
The difference between an antidote and a vaccine is that a vaccine is built on the basis of the same disease which it is being designed to prevent. In other words, a vaccine for covid 19 will be made from the actual virus itself.
To make a vaccine for fear, you would need to use fear to prevent fear, which would never work. Fear produces more fear, fear multiplies itself. One never gets over fear by introducing more fear.
So you would need to use an antidote. An antidote is an ingredient that can counteract or reverse the situation. It would be the opposite of fear, such as trust. Trust overcomes our fears.
But here’s the problem. People who fear, have difficulty trusting. They have trust issues on many levels, and that’s why they fear.
Fear Out of Control
Some people fear just about everything that wiggles.
They fear not being able to provide for their families.
They fear the death of their marriage partner or children.
They fear illness or violence.
They fear abandonment or rejection.
They fear not being enough –
smart enough, good enough, strong enough, talented enough.
They fear not being loved.
They fear God.
They fear whatever they were exposed to as a child.
Fear does not come from God. God is not the author of fear, Satan is. The spirit of fear is a demon sent from Satan himself. Because “fear” is a demon, we can tell it to leave in Jesus’s name.
God's Antidote for Fear
Our Heavenly Father knows that we are creatures of fear, so He gave us an abundant supply of Scriptures for us to cling to. There are 365 verses in the Bible about overcoming our fears. That is one for every day of the year. Most often when we read the words, “do not fear”, or “fear not”, we see the reason why we are not to fear. God says, “For I am with you”.
Isaiah 43:1-5 is a wonderful example of God’s presence, comfort, and encouragement in the midst of trouble.
But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior… Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you… Do not be afraid, for I am with you…
Application of Isaiah 43
God created us and formed us. Then, because we lived in sin, He sent His Son, Jesus, to purchase our souls back from Satan. He redeemed us with the blood of His own Son, Jesus.
He knows your name. He is intimately familiar with every detail of your life. If you have accepted God’s gift of salvation, you are His. You belong to Him. You are valuable to Him.
God does not promise to protect us from pain and tragedies, but He does promise to walk with us through the fire, the flood waters, and our storms. He walks with us and often carries us in our journeys of sorrow and disappointment. God’s presence disperses our fears.
He is the Lord your God, your Saviour. He refers to you as precious to Him and honored in His sight. Our Heavenly Father declares His love for His children throughout the entire Bible.
God Will Help You
Isaiah 41:10,13,14 are promises of God’s help and presence. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, …do not fear, for I will help you,” declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
These verses are promises to Israel and to us who have been adopted into Abraham’s family through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Look at the powerful promises in these verses, to those who belong to God.
o I am with you.
o I am your God.
o I will strengthen you.
o I will help you.
o I will uphold you with my own right hand.
o I will take hold of your hand and walk with you through your dark valley.
o I Myself will help you.
o I am your redeemer; I have purchased you.
o I am your protector and provider. You belong to Me.
God is faithful even when we are not faithful. Each time we are overcome by fear, it is because we have taken our eyes off God and begun looking at the storm. We panic and run around trying to fix the problem ourselves. We try to involve other people to help us.
But God says, hello, remember me?
-I am the Lord your God, with emphasis on “I”.
-I am your helper.
-I am your healer.
-I am your provider.
-I am your protector.
-Come to me, I will give you rest from your stress.
The emotions of worry, anxiety, and fear are common to every adult, whether you are knowledgeable in Scripture or a new believer. The key is to learn how to control such feelings. We can learn to overcome our fears as we draw closer to our Heavenly Father.
Overcoming Our Fears Through Trust
We are born with a built-in ability to trust, but when trust is broken, so also is our trust in God. We need to find an antidote to reverse the damages that cause fear. We must learn to trust again. But, how do we rebuild our trust in God?
How to Overcome Our Fears by Studying God's Character Qualities
When we know without question–God is all-powerful, all-knowing, unchanging, always present, God is good, faithful, gracious, merciful, and loving –We know He is trustworthy.
Study Scriptures on God's Love
God’s perfect, unconditional love drives out fear. Fear cannot exist in the presence of perfect love. Through studying Scripture, you can learn to trust God’s perfect, unchanging love as it applies to your needs for–protection, provision, comfort, health, stability, strength, wisdom, direction, and perseverance. Insert your name in the scriptures of God’s love and meditate on them daily. Psalm 91 is a good place to start.
How to Overcome Our Fears by Rejecting the Lie
When we are overcome by fear, we know that somewhere in our spirit we are believing Satan’s lie—
-God is not trustworthy.
-God is punishing you.
-God does not truly love you.
-God will not come through for you.
We don’t doubt that God has the power to do what we want or need, but we doubt that He will do it for us. Doubt is the opposite of faith. Faith dispels doubt and empowers us to press ahead.
When I Find Myself Worried, Anxious or Afraid
- I go to my prayer closet and close the door.
- I enter into God’s presence through worship with my favorite praise songs.
- I pray as I read the Psalms of David.
- I meditate on God’s love.
- I remind myself of the many times God has protected and provided for me.
- I give the situation to God.
- I stay there in God’s presence until the fear dissipates, and I am filled with the joy of the Lord. The situation may not change immediately, but I am changed so that I have more trust, and more faith.
When I am tempted to allow fear to control me, I remind myself of what fear is—F>E>A>R>
Fear is the product of –
Forgetting whose I am.
Entertaining Satan’s lies.
Accepting responsibility for what is not mine.
Rejecting Faith for worry.
Overcoming our fears is possible when we turn our eyes to the author and perfector of our faith.
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