How Can I Overcome Fear?

Are you being pushed around by fear? Did you know that you don’t have to live that way? Victory over fear starts with a strong confidence in God’s Word. When you start believing it, you’ll see a breakthrough. 

Fear is a nasty enemy. I think any man who struggles with lust would understand if I say fear is of a similar disposition. It’s a different approach to the soul, but it has a similar control potential where it doesn’t break easily. It is a long-time companion for many people. And yet the Gospel gives us an outlet of salvation, of deliverance, of escape and that all stems from the idea of faith.

Now I know this sounds like a pat answer at first, but we’re going to go for it here. When a person — man or woman — believes in the Word of God, it does something in changing their perspective. For instance, if you waffle and waver on what the Word of God says, well, you’re going to struggle. You’re going to be insecure. You’re going to be unstable. When winds and rains start beating against you, you’re not going to be founded and grounded upon something so, therefore, you’ll topple. That’s what fear is. In a nutshell, it’s an instability of confidence in the Word of God. It doesn’t mean your feet aren’t on it. It just means you’re not grounded, you’re not fixed to it. All told, 366 times in the Bible, it’s going to tell you not to fear – for example, Isaiah 41:10, 2 Timothy 1:7, 1 John 4:18, Joshua 1:9 and others.

That’s a pretty good amount of time. You could try and pick any other topic and you’re going to have a tough time finding that many repetitions of it. In other words, God is going out of His way to make something clear: there is no reason for you to fear.

Now our thought back is, “…well, God, I can think of a whole bunch of reasons.” But if you know His Word, He’s going to make it very clear. In Hebrews 13:5, for example, it says, “…never will I leave you; never will I forsake you…” (NIV).

Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble…” (NIV).

If you believe that, did you know that it will change your entire relationship with this thing called fear? Fear only can overcome your life and get its talons into you when you don’t believe the Word of God. But when you believe it, you can smile back and say, “…no, He’s an ever present help — right now. He will never leave me nor forsake me. He is my refuge and my strength”.

You see, if you know the truth of God’s Word, you hit fear in the teeth. But if you don’t know it, if you’re wobbly-kneed on it, if you don’t truly believe it, you’ll be shoved around. Victory over fear starts with a strong confidence in God’s Word. When you start believing it, you’ll see a breakthrough. Now, I would also encourage you to stand tall spiritually, to know your position in Christ, and push back in the authority of Christ’s Name. In other words, don’t let fear and anxiety, fretting and foreboding bully you around. You’re a child of the most high God – live as one.

And so, simply put, the recipe for overcoming fear is Jesus. Jesus’s Word, Jesus’s accomplishments on that Cross. As it says in 2 Peter 1:3, ”His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” (NIV)

You have everything you need to shoo fear out of the house.