Ding, Dong!
It’s the doorbell…
You think to yourself, “Who in the world could that be?” You’re not expecting guests and everyone knows you don’t like “uninvited” guests.
So, you tip-toe to the window and peek outside your shades to see if you can catch a glimpse of who’s at your door. Hmmm…. you don’t see anyone there, but to be sure, you slowly crack open the door anyway. And, as soon as you do, your uninvited guest slips right in.
“Who?”, you ask…
FEAR.
Yes, just like an uninvited guest, we don’t ever plan to invite fear into our lives. It sort of sneaks in just as you open the doors of what I like to call your human gates – your eyes, ears, and mouth – to anything outside of God’s plan and purpose for your life.
Your eyes are the gateway to your soul, stamping visuals onto your brain that you playback. Your ears record everything that it hears—voices, words. The mouth is controlled by the thoughts in your head and the emotions in your heart. Three powerful gates through which fear loves to travel, irrespective of any “formal” invite from you. Then again, sometimes fear RSVPs a “yes” to our invitation.
Overall, these human gates must be guarded at all times, filtering out uncensored, uninvited aspects of life that can cause fear to form and develop.
When fear is realized, it will camouflage a blessing (eyes), hear only negative language (ears), and speak doubt and destruction (mouth). At this point, fear is no longer a guest. It begins to unpack its bags and take up residence in your life!
Fear is a Liar.
So, have you ever experienced fear, uninvited or not? Newsflash: We ALL have and it’s perfectly normal. However, fear must be confronted and not ignored, confessed and not concealed. Even the psalmist tells God, “WHEN I am afraid…” – not if, maybe, or perhaps (Psalm 56:3).
Fear is not the best feeling in the world. But as a healthy practice, make sure you don’t let the things that cause fear be the reason why you don’t see the blessing in the midst of the storm. Don’t allow fear to “penetrate your heart” when someone speaks negatively to you or about you. Worse yet, keep fear from causing you to speak “death” over your circumstances (Proverbs 18:21).
If your decisions are rooted in fear, you will always experience less than the abundant life God desires. Why? Because you will be too scared to trust God due to a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined.
Team, fear is pretty serious and, like prolonged stress, it has dangerous effects on our spiritual, physical, and emotional state of being. Fear has got to go!
Good-bye, Fear.
So, are you ready to face your fears – even though you didn’t see it “sneak” in? It doesn’t matter how big or how small your fear may be – it all counts and it all has a root.
Perhaps something or someone influenced this fear based on what you saw, heard, or thought. And now, every time it comes up, you respond in distress. You’re even trying to cover up the anxiety, but it’s not working. You’re emotionally drained trying to protect the “mask” that you’ve placed over your fear.
So, What’s the Play Call?
Here are 3 play calls to combat fear, remember:
- “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
- Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” ~ Mark 5:36
- “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.” ~John 14:27
Trust that when you face your fears, you will never face them alone. Jesus will be right there with you to help you overcome and evict every distressing emotion.
