Who Taught You to Fear?

I am a brave soul. I always have been. But growing up, I had a few moments of fear. As a small child, my great-grandmother was slightly overprotective of me. Anything that took me out of her sight resulted in an expression of concern for my well-being, or a direct warning to me about my safety. Super loving and compassionate, she wasn't a fearful person herself, but she watched me like a hawk. Her expressions and warnings somehow embedded in me the existence of fear. I often thought, “Why is she so afraid for me?”

Though a woman of extreme faith, there was still this emotional attachment to me that made my great-grandmother fearful concerning me. Thankfully, I got the best of her traits - like her strength, her grace, and her charisma. The investment she made in me ended up empowering my fearlessness instead of hindering it.

Fear is unbelievably powerful. Fear penetrates the mind. It pierces the heart, it poisons the spirit, and it paralyzes the soul. Fear affects a person emotionally. It can cripple one mentally.

Many of our fears were embedded within us by those we love the most. If we think about some of the ways we experienced our upbringing, we might recall that sometimes our parents didn’t always have the faith to believe God for the same things for which we had faith. Even when they wanted the best for us, they could still have influence and talk us out of what we could do or discourage us based on what they couldn’t or didn’t do. I’m thankful that, even as a child, I learned to be brave. I can still picture a few of the brave moments as a little girl that foreshadowed the fearless days I would face as an adult. And eventually as I matured my great-grandmother would witness my fearlessness and even admire it, as she often said with a hint of pride and satisfaction, “That girl ain’t scared of nothing.” I still hear her many words of caution today, but instead of feeling fear, I take her perpetual voice as a sign of wisdom and discernment.

Because fear is a recurring emotion, we must assess where our fears are coming from. The word of God tells us that we have not been given a spirit of fear. It tells us not to be afraid. No matter where we learned fear, we need to remember that fear is not of God.

Answer these questions and reflect on your answers:

What are your recurring fears?

Were they embedded in you by others?

How do you know the difference?

Affirm and declare these statements:

God has not given me a spirit of fear.

I will trust in the Lord.

The Lord is always with me. I will not fear.

Pray in petition to God to pursue His will and way.