Get Rid of Fear
Have you been struggling with fears that take over your mind? Do you worry a lot about finances, family members, illness, job security, being lonely, people dying, or safety? The bad news is that if you live in fear, you are deceived. The good news is that Jesus is here to set you free from deception and the fear that goes with it.
“What?” you say, “I have good reasons to be afraid because…..”
What you may not have realized is that you have been putting faith in yourself, in your circumstances, and in what you see with your eyes. God wants you to put your faith in Him instead and to have confidence in what Hebrews 11:1 calls “the evidence of things not seen.” In order to do this, you need a revelation of how great God is and of His amazing love for you. When you know He’s your “Papa” who has all power to deal with the circumstances in your life, and when you understand that He looks at you as His precious child, you’ll be able to defeat the fears that try to plague your mind.
How can you defeat fear? By realizing how great God is!
Quote to yourself God’s wonderful promises in His Word. Choose to move your thinking onto those Scriptures instead of letting your mind dwell on the fear that is trying to take over. The more you know and quote Scripture to yourself, the stronger your faith in Jesus will become. With practice, replacing fearful thoughts with God’s Word will become easier and easier.
Some easy ways to get Scriptures into your mind so that you can win this mind battle are these:
- Have a daily quiet time with God.
- Learn songs that declare the truths of God and sing them often.
- Pray.
- Command fear away in Jesus’ name and move your thoughts onto the greatness of God.
- Spend time worshiping God.
- Stop hanging out with people who speak negatively and fearfully all the time.
- Regularly attend a good church where they teach and preach about having victory through Jesus.
Take a look at Deuteronomy 20:1-8. God told his people what to do when they were going out to battle. He was speaking of real, physical battles. Our battles are spiritual, and our enemies are demonic forces. The same Scripture applies to both kinds of battles.
Notice that God says when, not if, they go to battle. He talks about what they see with their eyes: enemies more numerous than themselves. In the natural, it’s scary for an army to see the enemy coming and see that the enemy outnumbers them. And in the natural, it’s scary for us to see financial problems, illness, rebellious kids, accidents, a threatening boss, and other situations that come our way.
What does God say to them in the middle of a scary situation? “Don’t be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you!” In verse 3 He goes on to say that they are not to be afraid, not to tremble, and not be terrified because of the enemy. As the enemy of our souls tries to afflict us with difficult situations in life, these words are for us! Verse 4 says that God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies and to save you. What a glorious promise!
Instead of being deceived into thinking that God can’t or won’t help you in the middle of giant problems in your life, start telling yourself these wonderful promises. Let your mind focus on our glorious God who is fighting the battle for us and who will bring provision and victory!
In verses 5-8 we see something very interesting. God did not want His warriors to be bogged down by other people. He tells the commanders to send home those who were concerned about their houses, their vineyards (their means of making a living), and their spouses. He also told them to send home those who were fearful and faint hearted? Why? Because, as verse 8 tells us, “Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brothers faint like his heart.” Fear and worries are contagious. If those with worries and fears started talking, they would drag down the faith of the others, and fear rather than faith would take over.
That’s why it’s important for you to spend time with people of faith. Let people of faith build up your faith as they recount stories of the goodness and provision of God in their lives. Don’t spend so much time with negative people (or negative TV programs, newspapers, radio shows, and internet sites) that you are attacked by fear. As you join together with others who have faith, you can pray together and believe God for miracles.
We do not have to be deceived and think that God is not great enough to work in our circumstances. We do not need to worry about things that may or may not happen. Let’s turn away from fear and deception today!
