Fear.

Inspired by the "believe" series at passion city church.


I know I haven't posted in a while. I haven't known what to write. I haven't thought of something that I thought was good enough to catch peoples eyes like the last couple things I have posted. However, I have come to realize that the past 2 weeks have been filled with so much fear. Fear of turning 18, fear of facing my senior homecoming. Fear of facing these 2 huge milestones in my life without my dad here.

Fear is completely dominating. Not only in my life these past 2 weeks, but in our world as a whole. However, what so many don't realize that our first response to things shouldn't be "I am scared" but simply "I believe in Jesus." Move away from an attitude of fear, and move towards and attitude of faith.

Fear: lack of confidence in yourself or others to control a situation, not having control.
Faith: Confidence in God to control all situations.

Sometimes people become discouraged because people look down on them for their faith, but when you think about it everyone has faith just in different things. I know things don't always go the way we think they should. But we have to remember that God made a universe out of nothing, He can take any circumstance and make it into something. Circumstances don't change who we are, they don't define us, they simply bring out who we really are. We walk into church, we raise our hands in praise, we sing every word to the songs but when one thing goes wrong we put our hands down, we stop singing. My prayer for myself lately has been that I keep my hand up, I keep singing, no matter the circumstance. I run to faith instead of running towards fear. But how do you that? Simple, remember the faithfulness of God and all He has already done in your life. Root yourself in faith. Numbers 13 tells the story of God telling Moses to send men to Canaan to scope out the land. The men go and come back with the report that this land is everything that God said it would be but the people living there are powerful and it wouldn't be worth it. But Joshua, son of Nun and Caleb, when he saw the army he simply remembered what he had seen in the tent, Exodus 33:7-11. He remembered God, and was not afraid.

In Exodus 3, God commands Moses to go to Egypt, and Moses first reaction was fear. Exodus 3:11,"Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt." Fear is normal, and we all face it. Some on a day to day basis, but God gives us the answer to fear just as He gave it to Moses in Exodus 3:12, "I will be with you." Things aren't always easy, fear does come, but the answer is simple; God will be with you.

I know sometimes we feel like we can't see God, and we feel like He is hidden, but that doesn't mean we can say there is no God, we have to remember how many times we have seen Him before.

With fear comes worry. Worry in scripture is the same thing in our time what we would call anxiety. Worry literally means to divide. So when someone says, "I am falling apart," thats where the meaning of worry comes from. Anxiety is real, and its a big deal. But we serve a God who is bigger. Jesus is bigger than the darkness, light will break through. Mark 9 tells the story of a father who has a son who is possessed, in verse 27 however victory comes and Jesus lifts the boy to his feet. This is a perfect picture of what Jesus will always do with us. No matter where we are, victory will come, light will break the darkness, and God will put us back on our feet. He is not just God, but He is your God, He is my God.

I have learned that a big part of being free from worry and fear is humility. When you are humbled you realize you are not in charge and you are simply living in the grace and power of God. You don't worry about what is going to happen, because you know who holds the plans to your future. When we try to run things because we think nothing is going right, thats when we have to humble ourself and remember that His plans are greater than ours, and nobody but Him can run our life in a better way.

The Lord is near. What is there to be anxious about?

Don't mistake if God isn't handling things the way you think they should, remember the Lord is near to you.

So yes, I am still afraid to face this week with how much is going on. But I am constantly reminding myself that I believe in Jesus, and He is near to me.

"I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind. The God of angel armies is always by my side."

Walking across that field friday I am going to have a brother on both arms, and I am going to remember that I know who goes before me, and I know who is standing behind me; the God of angel armies. He will be near to me, and I need not fear.

Today remember who goes before you and who stands behind. Humble yourself by knowing who is control of your life. Hold on to the promise that He is with you.

Isaiah 41:10
DONT FEAR.