We all deal with fear. For some of us it takes a tighter grip on our heart, creating anxiety that manipulates our emotions squeezing rest, trust and faith from our very being. It takes a great deal to acknowledge that the fear in our lives has become a roadmap, making decisions for us.
"When we have a deep understanding concerning God's perfect unconditional love for us, we realize He will always take care of everything that concerns us--that knowledge will eventually delivers us from fear." --J.Meyer
The knowledge of the understanding of God's love for us is what delivers us from fear. Sometimes we profess the we know the greatness of God's love, but in our hearts sometimes its hard to believe. When our heart believes the depth and perfection of His great love for us that knowledge is what will continually, daily, hourly, set us free from fear.
The resounding concept through this first chapter is that we need to focus on Him rather than our fear. When we turn our attention to the Lord the size and importance of our fear seems to digress. Know that fear is satan trying to distract us. (Notice word choice: trying.) Fear is a consistent, nagging hindrance to our direction. It's like if you're trying to walk straight in a straight line and someone is pushing your shoulder first on your right, you stumble a bit, then on your left, you stumble again, then back to your right and so forth until finally you give into the shove to your right shoulder and start veering to your left. No longer are you walking on that same straight path. Fear manipulates our direction. As a result of the satan's constant nagging we become afraid of what is ahead and take shortcuts around what we know is the "straight and narrow."
When we fear the first thing we need to do is to set ourselves to SEEK God. We need to develop the habit of running to God when we have trouble instead of to people. When we go to Him first it shows the Lord that we honor and trust Him. The second thing we need to do is learn to combat our fears by hearing from God. Romans 10:17 teaches us that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Joyce Meyer compels us to understand and believe that, "when we hear from God faith fills our hearts and drives the fear away."
If you're anything like me when you heart that we need to "combat our fears by hearing from God" you wonder well hearing from God can mean a lot of things? What specifically? So because fear is a feeling and an emotion rather than a fact or a statistic we cannot fight an emotion with simply words. We need to battle a feeling and emotion with another feeling and emotion. The combative effect of hearing from God comes when we hear His voice in the depths of our heart. How exactly would God speak to us in the depths of our heart? He may give you a strong, internal peace. He may give you a creative idea. He may simply calm your troubled emotions or He may give you assurance. "God speaks in various ways, but if we seek Him we WILL find Him. He will lead us and guide us if we acknowledge Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:5-6)." If we know that we find relief from fear when He speaks to the depths of our heart than I implore you to ask him diligently for that still small voice to speak to your heart.
Jehosephat, in 2 Chronicles 20, needed desperately to hear from the Lord because all the nations were building alliances against the nation of Judah and were going to strike against them. Jehosephat knew the only successful battle plan would be one from the Lord. So he ordered a fast throughout the nation in order to seek the Lord earnestly and passionately for guidance. Jehosephat knew that having God's direction was vital.
God wants to speak to you more than we want to hear from Him. So we need to seek Him by giving Him our time and I promise you will not be disappointed. When we earnestly seek Him and we give Him our time, we fast, pray meditate on His word and wait in His presence, are our actions say that hearing from God is vital? Yes. Our actions must be align with earnestly seeking our desires/answers!
"The reason so many people have problems all the time is because that is the only time they would seek Him." If we seek Him all the time, in every season, do you believe your troubles would diminish? I hope you do, I do! "If He removed the problems, He wouldn't get any time with His people." We have to recognize that the Lord is not just "our problem solver, He is our everything!" Just like you would hope that a friend would not just come to you when they need help, but also come to encourage you, fellowship with you and love you. We also need to treat our Creator and God as more than our "fixer". Do we honor Him enough to praise him and glorify Him before we ask Him to help us, or fix something?
But we can learn to pray like Jehosephat! And pray in a way that does honor our God. The solution is simple. We need to, like Jehosephat, turn our focus off of our fear of the problem(and its potential outcome) and turn our attention on how mighty our God is and that He is big enough and strong enough to conquer our fears and problems. And learn to pray from his example.
1. Acknowledge how great the Lord is, worshipping and exalting Him.
2. Remember relevant and similar "Mighty acts" the Lord has delivered you from.
3. Remember promises of the Lord that pertain to this specific problem.
4. Present the request to God and do so by
5. Expressing your confidence and faith that the Lord does know best
and that you do trust Him with the outcome.
The Lord hears us the first time we ask, we don't have to act any special way or follow any sort of routine in order for our request to reach the ear of our God. That law died with the sacrifice of Christ Jesus at Calvary. We have the ability to speak to God and to move Him readily available to us.
Your fears do not have to control you. Remember that fear is satan trying to distract you, so acknowledge that the next time you recognize any debilitating fear. The next step to clearing fear from your heart and mind is to hear the voice of God at the level of your heart. Seek Him and ask Him to whisper to the depths of your heart so you can experience relief. And pray like Jehosephat. Pray in a way that honors the Most High who we call our Creator, Comforter, Peace, Shelter, Refuge, Healer, Provider and Friend.
