Have you ever
struggled with fear?
Fear:
- To feel fear in oneself.
- To have a reverential awe of God.
- To be afraid of; to expect with
alarm.
Fear is a strange
feeling. For me, I start to feel a sharp pain in my stomach, and I get really
light-headed. But fear can be more than just a physical issue. It’s also a
mental and spiritual issue. Fear can screw up your perception of reality and
right and wrong.
Let’s break down
these three definitions of fear.
- To feel fear in oneself.
You’re not good enough.
Your hair isn’t straight enough.
Your grades aren’t good enough.
You will never be good enough.
Your confidence
takes a major hit when you let fear invade your thoughts. You start to question
whether or not you can do what it is you’ve set out to do. That long checklist
starts to swim in front of your eyes and you realize that you can never get
everything done. That’s the truth. YOU, are not good enough. But with God, you
are more than enough.
“Trust in the
LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
–Proverbs 3:5
Without God, we
can do nothing. And that’s a scary thought. When you start to doubt yourself
and fear, trust in Him. He will deliver you through it.
- To have a reverential awe of God.
Have you ever been
to the beach? Or the mountains? That moment when you stand there, and you
realize that you are so small compared to God, that is awe.
"He is your praise; he is
your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with
your own eyes." -Deuteronomy 10:21 NIV
We need to be in constant awe of
God. So many times we do something mildly cool, and we think we are “it”.
Wrong. We are so insignificant and weak in the sight of God. His glory should
constantly be amazing us and leaving us speechless.
3.
To be
afraid of; to expect with alarm.
This is my favorite type of fear.
*Insert large amount of sarcasm here*. This is the type of fear that tells you
that you should never, ever get on an airplane because you might crash, or to
never open yourself up to a relationship, because that person might hurt you.
This is the scariest type of
fear, but it’s also the silliest when you think about it. Why are we afraid? We
don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, and if we did, there’s nothing
we could do to change that. Unless the pilot of your plane gets on the P.A.
system and announces, “Hello, this is your captain speaking, we will be crash
landing over the Atlantic in two hours. Enjoy the flight,” then you really
shouldn’t be worrying.
"For I know the thoughts and
plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and
peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome."
-Jeremiah 29:11 (Amplified Bible)
"To everything there is a
season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven: A time to be born
and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted."
-Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 (Amplified Bible)
"Your beginnings will seem
humble, so prosperous will your future be."
Job 8:7 (NIV)
God will provide
for us. He will show us what is to come if we are supposed to know.
Don’t fear what
is to come.
~Emilee
