To Fight Fear

To fight fear three things are required: Know who God is, be obedient to His call, and trust Him. It is that simple but those three things are the most difficult things to you’ll ever do.

Genesis 22:9-14 NLT
(9) When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
(10) And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.
(11) At that moment the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Yes," Abraham replied. "Here I am!"
(12) "Don't lay a hand on the boy!" the angel said. "Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from Me even your son, your only son."
(13) Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
(14) Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means "the LORD will provide"). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

Here we see first of all Abraham had relationship with God and he communed with God and God with him. What does that look like for us? It begins in our hearts, our hearts hunger to know more about who God is and then the Holy Spirit of God leads us to pray. Asking that He reveal more of Himself to us and we take the time to open the Word of God and we pray for understanding. God is faithful and if we seek Him our understanding of who He is will grow. That is the first step of conquering fear.

Matthew 14:24-30 NLT
(24) Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves.
(25) About three o'clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water.
(26) When the disciples saw Him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, "It's a ghost!"
(27) But Jesus spoke to them at once. "Don't be afraid," He said. "Take courage. I am here! "
(28) Then Peter called to Him, "Lord, if it's really You, tell me to come to You, walking on the water."
(29) "Yes, come," Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.
(30) But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. "Save me, Lord!" he shouted.

Like Peter we do many things wrong as followers of Christ Jesus but he was the only one willing to trust Jesus while the others were filled with fear. For all Peter has been criticized for he got this one right in that he was obedient to God’s call for him to step out of the boat. It was only after he took his eyes off of Jesus and looked at the circumstances surrounding him that he began to sink.

Jonah 2:1-10 NLT
(1) Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish.
(2) He said, "I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and He answered me. I called to You from the land of the dead, and LORD, You heard me!
(3) You threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath Your wild and stormy waves.
(4) Then I said, 'O LORD, You have driven me from Your presence. Yet I will look once more toward Your holy Temple.'
(5) "I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.
(6) I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But You, O LORD my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!
(7) As my life was slipping away, I remembered the LORD. And my earnest prayer went out to You in Your holy Temple.
(8) Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God's mercies.
(9) But I will offer sacrifices to You with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the LORD alone."
(10) Then the LORD ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

Though Jonah tried to run from God he knew deep within there was no escaping God’s call on his life. He then told the sailors to toss him into the sea and the storm would cease and it did. However for Jonah he had to learn his lesson in the belly of the great fish but even then Jonah could hear the call of God on his life. In the midst of his desperation Jonah stopped trying to run from God and decided the best thing to do was to instead trust God. I believe the moment he had experienced a true heart change the fish spit him out on dry land.

As God’s people we are not perfect and even in the midst of our failures, if we know Him, we can hear His call on our lives. That can either bring great misery or great joy but that depends on our willingness to trust and obey Him. In all three of these accounts fear had to be overcome; it wasn’t overcome by running away but instead running to God and in turn God was glorified through that individual for all the world to see! You want to do something big for God, you want to tear down the walls fear has built in your life, then know God, be obedient to His call, and trust Him in all things.