There has been so many times in my life when I was crippled by fear. Crippled and rendered completely useless because of surrounding opinions and voices that said it was not possible. But every single time, God comes through by quieting the noise and speaking through Scripture to my specific situation. Here are five ways how you can get over your fears, beginning today:
1. Starve your doubt and feed your faith. We love feeding doubt and fear because it gives us a sense of control. It relegates us to a very safe environment where we don’t have to step out in faith. We don’t have to go into unchartered territory. But that is not what we were created for. We were wired to live, wide awake – facing our fears and allowing faith to get us through even the fiercest of storms.
2. Declare a famine for your critics. Don’t spend energy feeding your critics. Put that talent and time into creating your art and perfecting your craft. I will admit that it is very tempting to answer to every criticism. To every objection. To answer and provide detailed explanation. But it’s not worth your time. Not everyone will understand your dream. Not everyone will be on board with your vision. But here is the cool thing: If God got you in it, He will get you through it.
3. Realize you are not alone. Whatever position you are in, you are bound to feel lonely at some point. You will feel like you are the only one that cares, the only one that is doing work that matters and the only one that wants to make a difference. I have been there and felt this way. But this is the crazy thing. That’s not the case at all. Community eliminates this fear. Community allows you to experience a whole host of people who are on mission, along with you.
4. Do more good, instead of worrying about not doing bad. The tragedy in our life will be not doing bad things, but rather not doing enough good things. I heard a Christian leader recently say that it gets harder to take risks and step out in faith as you get older, because there is more to lose and more to risk. So guess what, do something risky today, while you still have nothing to lose. You have one life to live. Go make it count. For Jesus fame.
5. Take the plunge. Before I get up to preach, my heart is usually beating twice as fast as it should be. It is a great trepidation that takes over me, before entering that sacred space. But quickly I realize its not about my fear, but rather about Jesus and the faith that He has given me. When it becomes about other people in your life, your fear evaporates because you are focused on serving the people in your life. Don’t look back. Start.
“Fear not,” is the most frequent command found in the Bible. The Bible talks specifically about fear over three hundred times. The Bible encourages us not to fear explicitly, over one hundred times. Jesus tells us to “fear not,” at least over thirteen times in the New Testament.
Perfect love casts out fear. We know Who that perfect love is. His name is Jesus.
We don’t have to fear anything, because we know the One who has already overcome, everything.
Question: What else would you add to this list? How do you personally overcome your fear and live life, wide awake?
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