No matter where you are in life, there will come a time when you will be tempted to allow fear in. For me, that time was a few weeks ago; it felt like life was pulling me in every direction. The stress of work, life, and personal relationships had compounded to the point where I realized that I wasn’t looking to God as my source. I wasn’t using my faith to believe that God would lead me through hardship, instead, I was trying to do it in my strength.
Because I wasn’t using faith, I was allowing fear to come into my life.
You see, having faith in God is choosing to believe in God. However, having faith in fear is choosing to believe in a negative outcome. Instead of believing in something that hasn't happened, believe that God’s goodness will bring you through whatever situation you’re in. You will always have faith in something: God or fear.
At the moment when I recognized that fear was coming into my life, the Lord brought II Timothy 2:7 to mind (For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.). I prayed “Thank you Lord that you have not given me a spirit of fear. I know that You are with me and I have faith that You will bring me through it. All bad situations have to go in the name of Jesus because You work all things for the good of those who love You.”
As soon as I prayed that, I felt the peace of God surround me and it felt like the burden of fear was lifted from me.
An important thing to note here is Jesus’ illustration of how He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5). When you pray and ask the Lord to give you faith over fear, you have to keep in mind that the enemy will attack again. He might not attack in the next 10 minutes, 10 hours, or 10 days, but he will attack again. Be ready for it. It is important to continually pray the prayer of “Lord, You have not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind, so I ask that You give me faith over every situation that may come my way.” If we (the branch) do not abide in Him (the vine), we will wither (John 15:6).
As long as we abide in Him, we can rest assured knowing that we will not be burned.
