Fear is normal and natural. Many times, our fears are even
well founded. So it is not good to deny our fears or to try to suppress them.
Our fears should be confronted and beaten. Sometimes what we need to do to
defeat a fear is to share it with someone¾a loved one, an
advisor, a teacher, a friend. Other times, we can do research and read about
the subject and see how others feel about it. Many times, sharing with others
and realizing that others go through the same fears help us deal with our own
fears.
Fear is something we all
have to deal with at some point or another. It can be fear about events in our
daily life, such as losing our job, getting sick, getting into an accident or
losing our loved ones. Or it can be fear about more intangible things, such as
fear of certain unexplained experiences. When we were younger, many of us have
suffered from fear after watching scary movies about Dracula, Freddy Krueger or
poltergeists. Many of us have spent nights without sleep. Many of us have had
horrible nightmares or strange dreams, and some of us might even have had
weird, unexplainable experiences while we were awake.
Fear can be our worse
enemy. The best way to beat our fears is to call on God’s help. He is the
Almighty, and under His wings we can take refuge. All we have to do is pray and
call on the power of His name, and He will deliver us from our fears before we know
it.
But still, as always, we must do our part. One successful way
to protect ourselves from our fears is not to obsess about them. There are many
unexplained things here on this earth. We do not need to look into all of them.
If we knock, the door will be opened…but we must be careful where we are
knocking. Let’s be careful about what we mess with. Some things can easily get
out of our control. Let’s set boundaries for ourselves, so that we do not
accidentally fall victim to what we are most afraid of. We should stay away
from the dark side of life, in other words we should stay away from the occult.
If we choose to stay in the light, we will minimize our chances of getting hurt
physically or psychologically. Let’s not mess with the esoteric. Let’s let some
mysteries remain mysteries. And let’s put our focus and our trust on God. Our
Father in heaven loves us and wants to keep us safe under His umbrella of
protection.
We must trust our
instincts. Every time we get a bad feeling about something we cannot explain,
we should try to listen to it. There are many reasons why we might get a
feeling about a particular thing. Not everything can be explained logically,
but this does not mean that it is not real. If we become people who rely only
on facts, then we will limit ourselves to the five senses, and that will not
give us a complete picture. Quantum physics has demonstrated that nothing has
been proven for sure and that everything is possible. Time after time,
something scientists believed to be the absolute truth has been proven wrong.
Now scientists know only one thing is for sure, and that is that nothing is for
sure.[1] We
cannot choose to ignore the fact that life is a mystery, and therefore we must
always leave room for the benefit of the doubt even for those things
we don’t want to believe in.
Fear is something to be
respected but not something to be intimidated by. Fear is something to be
watchful for, but not something to obsess about. Feeling afraid can sometimes
be a warning signal, to advise us not to go in a certain direction or to act in
a certain manner. Our fears can be our best friends because they can warn us
about areas in our lives we need to be careful about. Other times, fears are
the products of our imaginations, and they must be controlled.
One thing is essential and that is to not let ourselves be conquered or frozen by our fears. We
need to have faith and trust that God always takes care of us. God is more
powerful than anything, and He loves us and protects us. When we are afraid, we
need to think about how God is our refugee and our fortress, and repeat that to
ourselves. We who are sheltered under His shadow and are protected by His
loving wings must cling to Him in our darkest moments. If we call upon Him, He
will protect us. There need be no doubt in our hearts.
Wisdom to contemplate:
“Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that
surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 4:6-7)
“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow
of the Almighty, say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I
trust.’ God will rescue you from the fowler's snare, from the destroying
plague, will shelter you with pinions, spread wings that you may take refuge;
God's faithfulness is a protecting shield. You shall not fear the terror of the
night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that roams in darkness,
nor the plague that ravages at noon.
