“… It shall be done for you as you have believed…”
Matthew 8:13
Both fear and faith contain creative power. By faith God created the world that we live in. By faith Sarah conceived and gave birth to a child even though she was far too old to do so. Many people have done seemingly impossible things by faith. They have received strength beyond their natural ability, as when Samson killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey (see Judges 15:16). History tells of those who believed in God that were burned at the stake while they sang praise to God. I, for one, don’t know how that would even be remotely possible without a strong faith in God. I know for sure that fear didn’t urge them to sing while they were burning.
Faith is leaning entirely on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness (see Colossians 1:4). Faith believes for something good to happen. It believes that God can do what would be impossible with man. Faith contains creative power.
Faith believes what it cannot see yet. It believes in its heart, not with its eyes. You can choose to believe in your heart that something wonderful is about to happen. Believe that God’s power is in you and that you need not fear anything because He has promised to be with you always. Wake up every morning with an enthusiasm for the day. You might not awake every day feeling especially enthusiastic (I know that I don’t) but we can decide to believe and expect good things, and as soon as we do, enthusiasm begins to fill our soul.
You can do something that nobody else on Earth can do exactly the way you can do it. Celebrate your specialness and explore the potential of each day. Don’t waste your day shrinking back from life in fear, for today is all we truly have. Be open to all your possibilities and above all, always believe in miracles!
One day a six-year-old girl was sitting in a classroom. The teacher was going to explain evolution to the children. The teacher asked a little boy if he could see the grass outside. “Yes, teacher, I see the grass.” The boy’s name was Tommy so the teacher said, “Tommy, go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky. He returned in a few minutes, “Yes, I saw the sky.” The teacher asked, “Did you see God?” “No, teacher, I didn’t see God.” The teacher said, “Well, class, that is my point. We cannot see God because He isn’t there.”
A little girl spoke up and wanted to know if she could ask the boy some questions. The teacher agreed and the little girl asked: “Tommy, do you see the tree outside?” He responded, “Yes, I see the tree.” She asked, “Do you see the grass?” He said, “Yes, I see the grass.” “Do you see the sky? Do you see the teacher?” Tommy said, “Yesssss,” and his voice tone indicated that he was tired of answering questions. The little girl finally asked, “Do you see the teacher’s brain?” Tommy said, “No, I don’t see her brain.” The little girl said, “Then according to what we were taught today that means she must not have one.” We walk by faith and not by sight (see 2 Corinthians 5:7).
I would venture to say that the six-year-old girl was wiser and probably had more joy than the teacher. If we are only able to believe what we see with our natural eyes, we lack true vision and have no ability to dream. We have no faith, and where there is no faith, fear will always rule and torment.
If we are only able to believe what we see with our natural eyes, we lack true vision and have no ability to dream.
Just as I believe that faith has creative power, I also believe that fear contains creative power. Fear believes that something bad will happen, and we see over and over that if a person consistently believes something awful will take place, then it usually does. Take the example of people who have phobias concerning germs and disease. They are constantly afraid of getting sick, and then the stress of their negative belief frequently makes them sick. Quite often I have witnessed someone experience a problem and then heard them say, “I was afraid that was going to happen,” or, “I knew that was going to happen.” They had already planned for the problem before they even got it! Some people are afraid they will lose their jobs and they do; others are afraid they will be lonely all their lives and they end up that way. A student might be afraid they will fail a test at school and they do. I have done the same thing in the past, but thankfully God has taught me to expect good things rather than bad ones.
Fear totally blocks our creativity and we are disabled from doing what we are well able to do. The student who fails the test out of fear may have known the material well, but fear disabled him. The employee who was afraid of losing their job may have let fear disable them from doing a good job, so their employer let them go. People who are afraid of being lonely and rejected are unaware that their fear causes them to behave in a way that makes people uncomfortable around them. They may even be unfriendly, which prevents others from befriending them, and it is due to their fear of being rejected.
I am not suggesting that every time a fear presents itself to us that we are in danger of having something bad happen, but I do believe that if a person consistently believes and speaks that bad things are going to happen, they may well be releasing the creative power to make them happen.
After having many difficult and painful things happen in his life, Job said…
For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, and that of which I am afraid befalls me.
Job 3:25
According to the Bible, our words contain the power of life and death (see Proverbs 18:21). That is a truth that we definitely should not ignore. If you and I can speak life to others, ourselves, and our future, why would we want to speak death? We do not really want to, but due to being deceived about the power of our words, we open our mouth and speak out all of our thoughts and emotions without realizing what we are doing and the power that those words have.
If individuals are afraid, then they will speak fearful things out of their mouths, and those words can adversely affect their lives. Fearful thoughts and words block our ability to hear from God, and we can fall into harm’s way simply because we are not acting wisely. We need to be led by the Spirit of God and walk in His wisdom. In order to do that we need faith, not fear. We receive everything from God only by faith, and likewise we can receive the negative and bad things that Satan has planned for us through fear. I realize that most people prefer not to even think about the devil, let alone believe that he is alive and well on planet Earth and has the capability of adversely affecting our lives. We are sure to be defeated if we don’t know our enemy. There are many Scriptures that teach us about the reality and work of Satan (the devil):
Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.
Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset…].
1 Peter 5:9 [emphasis mine]
So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.
James 4:7
These two Scriptures make it clear that we need to resist Satan and that we can only do so through faith. If we allow fear to rule in our lives, we are giving the devil an opportunity to work. We are instructed to be cautious at all times and vigilant in our resistance to the devil, and that includes aggressively resisting fear. We cannot be passive, for if we are, we will be taken advantage of. We can resist fear, and it is not difficult to do once we learn to walk in faith at all times. In each situation, we can choose to believe God’s Word instead of the thought or emotion of fear that is being provoked by Satan. Remember, according to God’s Word, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV).
And the huge dragon was cast down and out—that age-old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, he who is the seducer (deceiver) of all humanity the world over…
Revelation 12:9
Satan is a deceiver. The book of Revelation tells us of a time when Satan will be cast out and down, but for now he is still deceiving people. In the Vine’s Greek Dictionary, the word “deception” is defined to cheat, that which gives a false impression, whether by appearance, statement, or influence. The feelings and thoughts of fear give a false impression. We receive, as a probable reality, something bad that isn’t in existence. Fear is filled with thoughts of “what if,” and the mental images we conjure up are never anything pleasant.
The Bible mentions deception in connection with many things. For example, it speaks of the deception of riches. Many people think that their security is in their riches, and then they become afraid of losing them.
Satan also tries to lure us into self-deceit, and it is said to be a sin against common sense. Self-deceit leads a person to think more highly of themselves than they should, and that can hinder them from total dependence on God. Self-deception can lead us to be so self-reliant that we become afraid to trust anyone or anything except ourselves. We are also deceived when we think God accepts us because of our good work. It is our faith in Jesus that makes us acceptable to God, and not because we keep all the rules and laws of religion. If we think we must keep all the rules to be accepted, the by-product of that deception is that we become afraid of God’s anger when we don’t keep the rules and behave perfectly. I think it is safe to say that all deception leads to fear in some way, which is of course Satan’s main goal.
Faith is the only true antidote for fear. If a person unknowingly swallows poison, as soon as they become aware of it, or begin to experience adverse symptoms, they look for the antidote. An antidote has the power to reverse something harmful. Fear is harmful and as soon as we sense the adverse effects of it, we should immediately return to faith. We can always overcome fear with faith. We recognize fear and keep going forward with God, knowing that our faith in Him is greater and will produce much better results than the fear.
We can always overcome fear with faith.
Fear has symptoms. It makes us tense and nervous. We cannot relax or truly enjoy anything that we are doing. If I were at a party, but was afraid that some of the people there didn’t like me, then I wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy myself. That would be a mild reaction compared to some of the experiences I have heard about. People can get such intense physical symptoms from fear that they need to go to the hospital due to feeling that they cannot breathe or feeling that they are having a heart attack. This type of reaction is called an anxiety or a panic attack. Some people have these attacks and unless they are caused by a chemical imbalance in their body, they are always connected in some way to fear. Often the root cause is difficult to locate because the fear may be due to something that happened to them in their childhood that they have blocked out of their consciousness and can no longer remember.
Other symptoms of fear would include shrinking back from a challenge instead of facing it boldly. Feeling incapable instead of capable. Always sticking with things that are familiar rather than stepping out into anything that would be adventurous or new. There is a long list of physical symptoms one might experience as well. Fear has dangerous and devastating symptoms, but we have the antidote, and it is faith in God!
You are not alone! God is with us, and because of that we can conquer fear. God assigns angels to each of us to watch over and protect us, and we have the Holy Spirit with and in us at all times.
For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not… to put you once more in bondage to fear…
Romans 8:15
The Holy Spirit is our constant companion! That makes me feel safe, and I pray that it does you also. I think it is a great thing to realize that we are not alone. Because honestly, quite often we do feel alone. We think that nobody understands us, or our problems, and that there is no one to help us. The aloneness that we sometimes feel feeds the feelings of fear.
When Jesus was being tempted by the devil for 40 days and nights in the wilderness, angels came and continually ministered to Him (see Mark 1:13). When He was suffering and facing His most difficult time in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was strengthened by an angel (see Luke 22:43), and He was enabled to press into His heavenly Father’s plan. All throughout Scripture we see angels ministering to and being with God’s people. Perhaps we need to become more aware that we have ministering and guardian angels with us always.
For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].
Psalm 91:11
We have a promise from God that as we obey and serve Him, He will not only be with us Himself, but He will give His angels a special charge over us. We should be more conscious and aware of this promise and perhaps even say out loud a few times a day in our private moments, “I have angels with me right now!”
I heard a story about a girl who was swimming in the ocean when she got into a swell and realized she was in terrible trouble. She was too far out for anyone to get to her, and her friends watched helplessly from the shore as she thrashed about trying to save herself. Suddenly a very tall man appeared in the water with her, but he was standing on top of the water, not swimming in it. He swooped her up, and walking on the water, he carried her to shore and lay her down. Her friends first ran to her to make sure she was breathing, and a few seconds later when they looked for the man, he was gone. They were sure they had seen an angel.
I also heard of a woman who was driving down the road thinking about her daughter who had recently died when she heard her tire pop. She stopped and got out of the car to assess her situation and realized she was a long way from any help. As she looked up she saw a man in the distance coming toward her rolling a tire. He said, “I have been sent to help you.” He changed her tire and as he walked away he turned back and said, “Jenny is fine and you don’t need to worry about her anymore.” Jenny was her daughter who had died. Surely, the visitor who was sent to help her was an angel.
There are literally thousands upon thousands of reports such as these, and it is quite exciting and comforting to realize that we truly are not alone. God sends His angels to assist us in many ways that we probably don’t recognize.
Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?
Hebrews 1:14
Perhaps like me, you’re not sure that you have ever seen an angel, but we can and should have the faith to believe they are with us simply because God’s Word says that they are.
I have already established that we will all feel fear at various times in our lives, but we don’t have to let it stop us. We don’t have to obey it. Realizing that we are never alone, but that we in fact have divine help with us at all times, should embolden us to do whatever we need and want to do, even if we have to “do it afraid.”