Breaking The Fear Cycleናሙና

Facing Your Greatest Fear

What is your greatest fear? If you are anything like me, you don’t even want to take the chance of naming your fear out loud. A tiny voice inside of you tells you if you say it out loud, you just might jinx yourself. God fearing, God trusting, and God believing though you are, you will not take any chances when it comes to your greatest fear. Your fear just is. It’s part of you, and you have come to accept it. 

I lived there once too. I lived so entrenched in fear that it became a driving force in my life without me even realizing it. Fear seeped into my relationships, my parenting, my marriage, and my home.

And so I searched Scripture for a verse saying that nothing bad would ever happen to me or my loved ones. But it’s not there! God’s Word is good. It is holy, reliable, powerful, mysterious, and righteous, and there are no promises that tell me my worst fears will not come true. God does not promise us a pain-free existence. 

How, then, I wondered, can I convince my brain not to fear the utter destruction of everyone and everything I hold near and dear? 

And then one of my greatest fears came true. When I was eighteen-weeks pregnant with my fourth child, I learned that he wouldn’t live more than a few hours after birth. I wish I could say that what came next was easy, but fears assaulted me with a new intensity. I embarked on a four-month daily battle with terrifying thoughts. Then gently, day by day, God revealed to me his battle plan over fear. My fear was redeemed through the life and death of my baby boy Gideon.

With God at my side, I fought fear and I fought it hard, and God taught me a battle plan that works. May it work for you too. May you embark with confidence on this journey, knowing that if God can heal a fearful soul like mine, he can heal yours too.

Make a list of your greatest fears. What would it look like to give those fears to God, not because they will never happen but because he can give you a battle plan to fight the fear that grips you?