365 times our loving Daddy God tells us not to fear. If you are counting, that is one time for every day of the year! Yet, many of us live in and from fear more than we would like.
Some fears are understandable and appropriate. If you are being driven in a car at 120 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone, you should feel afraid. If someone is threatening you with a gun, you should feel afraid. If your child was supposed to be home at a certain time and he/she is eight hours late, you should feel afraid. But even in these situations, we can choose to trust God or not. God’s heart is certainly not for us to live from a place of fear all of the time.
Then, there is sinful fear. This kind of fear is destructive and reveals itself as worry, anxiety, anger, silence, depression, control and more. This kind of fear is what Jesus died to free us from. First, because of our resurrection with Christ, we are not fearful people in our identity in Christ. Second and foremost, our God is faithful and can be trusted. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us this is the kind of fear He tells us to pray about until we experience Him as our peace.
I remember sharing Psalm 56:3 with a pastor friend of mine who was feeling guilty because he felt afraid his child would be born with cystic fibrosis. He and his wife both had the gene for that mortal disease but did not know it until after they had conceived. When I shared this scripture, he immediately felt relieved. He experienced such a freedom from his false guilt, that he planned to share it with his congregation the next week. It says, “When I am afraid I will put my trust in You.”
You see, you may feel afraid even when you are trusting God. Wouldn’t it be great if when we trusted God, our feelings of fear would immediately go away? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.
Many years ago, I was counseling a person who had extreme anxiety. This person knew who they were in Christ and believed it. This person knew that Christ was their Life and believed it. Yet, the anxiety would not stop. After we prayed about it for a while, I sensed that this anxiety might be from a brain chemistry imbalance. They went to a good doctor who prescribed an anti-anxiety medication. A few weeks later, this person returned to thank me saying they were finally free from years of anxiety and could now experience Christ as their Life in a deeper way.
If you are feeling fearful, you may want to also ask God if there is anything He wants you to do that would alleviate your fear. One of my sons felt incredible anxiety one semester in college though he was relying on Christ in him and praying about it. As we talked, it turns out that his anxiety was a result of feeling overwhelmed by all of his school work. I encouraged him to sit down and write down all that he had to do, prioritize it according to due dates and then use his calendar to schedule his work. In two days, his anxiety was gone.
Pray and ask God to make clear to you what type of fear you are experiencing and what He wants you to do/believe about it.
Live Free In Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding
Some fears are understandable and appropriate. If you are being driven in a car at 120 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone, you should feel afraid. If someone is threatening you with a gun, you should feel afraid. If your child was supposed to be home at a certain time and he/she is eight hours late, you should feel afraid. But even in these situations, we can choose to trust God or not. God’s heart is certainly not for us to live from a place of fear all of the time.
Then, there is sinful fear. This kind of fear is destructive and reveals itself as worry, anxiety, anger, silence, depression, control and more. This kind of fear is what Jesus died to free us from. First, because of our resurrection with Christ, we are not fearful people in our identity in Christ. Second and foremost, our God is faithful and can be trusted. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us this is the kind of fear He tells us to pray about until we experience Him as our peace.
I remember sharing Psalm 56:3 with a pastor friend of mine who was feeling guilty because he felt afraid his child would be born with cystic fibrosis. He and his wife both had the gene for that mortal disease but did not know it until after they had conceived. When I shared this scripture, he immediately felt relieved. He experienced such a freedom from his false guilt, that he planned to share it with his congregation the next week. It says, “When I am afraid I will put my trust in You.”
You see, you may feel afraid even when you are trusting God. Wouldn’t it be great if when we trusted God, our feelings of fear would immediately go away? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.
Many years ago, I was counseling a person who had extreme anxiety. This person knew who they were in Christ and believed it. This person knew that Christ was their Life and believed it. Yet, the anxiety would not stop. After we prayed about it for a while, I sensed that this anxiety might be from a brain chemistry imbalance. They went to a good doctor who prescribed an anti-anxiety medication. A few weeks later, this person returned to thank me saying they were finally free from years of anxiety and could now experience Christ as their Life in a deeper way.
If you are feeling fearful, you may want to also ask God if there is anything He wants you to do that would alleviate your fear. One of my sons felt incredible anxiety one semester in college though he was relying on Christ in him and praying about it. As we talked, it turns out that his anxiety was a result of feeling overwhelmed by all of his school work. I encouraged him to sit down and write down all that he had to do, prioritize it according to due dates and then use his calendar to schedule his work. In two days, his anxiety was gone.
Pray and ask God to make clear to you what type of fear you are experiencing and what He wants you to do/believe about it.
Live Free In Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding
