I don’t have to convince you that life can be really scary. The problem is that the normal ways we have of coping with fear don’t usually help very much. Often we try to deflect fear by telling ourselves that everything is going to be fine, other times we dig in our heels and determine to work even harder to make life work the way we want it to work.
Overcoming fear starts with understanding where fear comes from. The fear we fight can only come from our past, our present, or our future. I think you will agree that our past can’t really harm us. It is gone, and we all know we can’t change it. We may be dragging around some hurtful things from the past, but they don’t tend to trigger fear.
What about our present? For the most part, what we are facing right now (I mean right at this very moment) rarely sets off any fears.
Most of our fears, I think you will agree, live in the future. That is where our “what ifs” thrive. You know, “what ifs” like what if I lose my job, or what if I lose my health, or what if someone close to me dies, or what if one of my relationships falls apart. The list is almost endless.
Okay, so since most of our fears live in the future, what can we do about it? I’m going to break the solution down into three big and important ideas. Stick with me. This is really exciting.
First, we must accept that the Creator of the universe has complete control over everything. This means that He controls the future. “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Secondly, we need to be sure that we belong to this God who made everything, including us. When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, He pays for and forgives our sin that has separated us from God; He also brings us into an intimate relationship with Him. The Bible uses the idea of adoption in order to picture this permanent relationship. “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! [Much like our terms “Daddy” or “Papa”] Father!’ … and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:15, 17). The forgiveness and adoption that Jesus offers must be embraced as a gift that we cannot earn or deserve: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Lastly, we must trust God’s promises about the future because He has given them to us. Here is a way to picture this truth. Imagine that you are six years old and live at home with your mom and dad. They put you to bed one night, and soon you are sound asleep. At 2 o’clock in the morning a big thunderstorm rolls through your neighborhood. It happens to be one of those really scary storms. It has thunder that rattles the windows, and lightning that flashes like a strobe light into your bedroom. You are terrified, so you jump out of bed and run into your parent’s room and leap into their bed. They hold you close and say, “Honey, I know the storm is really scary, but we’ve been through many storms like this, and it’s not going to hurt you.” At that moment your fear begins to melt away, even though the storm may continue for a while longer. The words that your parents spoke brought peace to your troubled heart because, at 6 years of age, you believed them completely. God wants us to feel the same way about Him. Remember, Jesus said that we must come to Him like a little child (Luke 18:16-17). Notice the very tender way that God speaks to His own, “… I have chosen you and not rejected you. Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:9–10). When we know that the all-powerful God of the universe has placed His love on us, just hearing His words calms our fears. “… man does not live by [God’s gift of] bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). No question, life is scary. We have an awesome Comforter available, though, who can calm all of our fears. When we give our lives to God–the One who made billions of galaxies out of nothing–we can be surrounded in peace and safety. While we don’t know what the future will bring, we can know that He will take care of us.
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