“Be afraid, be very afraid.” You may remember that tagline from the 1986 horror film The Fly. What kinds of things make you afraid these days? If you think about it, the things we fear are not very rational.
Are you afraid to fly? You have a 0.00001 percent chance of dying in an airplane crash. Are you afraid of heights? It’s the second most reported fear. Your chance of being injured by falling, jumping, or being pushed from a high place is 1 in 65,092. Do you fear being struck by lightning? The odds of that happening are 1 in 2.3 million.
How about dogs? Their bark really is worse than their bite: Your chance of suffering a dog bite is 1 in 137,694. (That actually happened to me last year. It’s a crazy story I will tell you if you ask me about it sometime.) How about sharks? Your chances of a shark attack are only 1 in 300 million.
Everyone has fears. The real problem isn’t being afraid, but it’s what you do with the fear that really matters. God doesn’t want you to live a fearful life. I want to share 2 practical ways you can overcome your fears.
Move against your fear.
You can’t go around, over, or under fear. If you don’t face it head-on, you can be paralyzed by your fears. Faith isn’t the absence of fear, but faith is the courage to move ahead despite your fear. As you do, you are showing that you trust God’s good plan for you more than your fears. The things we fear are always worse than reality. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear is a faker.
Move toward Jesus’ love for you.
Jesus is always with you. He will never love you any more or any less. His love is unconditional and eternal. The Bible says,
“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them… There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:16, 18, NIV).
When you invite God in the front door of your life, fear heads out the back door. Love and fear can’t be in the same place. God’s perfect love drives fear far away. The more you get to know Him, the less fearful you will be. So spend some time praying to God today.
Both of those truths can be summed up this way: Choose faith over fear. Doing what God asks you to do can be scary sometimes, but obedience always results in victory. You will find freedom on the other side of fear when you pursue God and live boldly in spite of your fear.