Let Not Fear Control You
“The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder.” ~ Richard Bach
Fear comes in all shapes and sizes. Some are itsy bitsy little fears and others are totally incapacitating fears. Any fear, in time, has the power to incapacitate a person. If one has a little fear and allows that fear to affect him or her, that person will then allow the next fear to have hold as well. That fear might be a bit larger. The fear after that will be even larger. Before you know it, the person will be too afraid to move on in life.
Fear is real. Fear can be immobilizing. Yet all fear can be confronted and, I dare say, defeated.
That’s right. We do not have to allow fear to take over our lives. It is possible to face fear. It takes inner strength and it takes trust. It also takes the admission that, perhaps, we cannot do it on our own and that we need the help of others, even the help of God.
I have shared with you in past reflections that I had an awful fear of the dark and of heights when I was young. Come to think of it, I also had a fear of swimming and almost of anything else that I had never experienced before. I think it was safe to say that most of my fears could be summarized as saying that I had a fear of the unknown. The “what ifs” that ran through my mind often caused me to be frightened.
What helped me rise above most of my fears was the encouragement and/or instruction of others. When someone would explain to me how to do something safely and successfully — and even go the extra mile of showing me themselves — I would be more prone to try and, when I succeeded, would have no problem doing something again.
If we do not open ourselves up to trusting others and asking others for help, we might allow ourselves to become mired in our fears. It’s a horrible feeling to be trapped by fear. The feeling that one cannot move on and that one cannot go back and recover is overwhelming. Left to ourselves, though, that can happen to us.
Isn’t it wonderful that God is there for us? We do not have to be left to ourselves. He is always at our side and will grasp us when we reach out to Him. He also gives us others in our lives as well to act as witness or companion. Seeing the strength of others and the example of others, we can overcome the fear that is in our lives.
They say that “fear not” is mentioned in the Bible 365 times. God knows our fears. God gives us the help that we need — through others or directly — to confront our fears. Fear should have no place in our lives.
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to give you the necessary courage to face and fight your fears.