“Fear-Less” or “Less-Fear”?

By: Nancy Abiera

 

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

When I was younger, I used to have lots of fear in life. These habits led me to think, say and do crazy things ending in more frustrations and failures. Fear of failure is one of them which branches to all other kinds of fear bearing bitter fruits which havoc almost every area of my life. These were recorded in my thoughts and memories which paralyzed me even more with greater fear.

I used to worry about many things: my career, finances, family, friends, and relationships with family, friends and people of the opposite sex; what to wear; what others would think of me, etc. It felt like never ending cycle similar to a broken record playing again and again. The more I dwell on them, the more I spiral down deeper. I am sure your situation may be different. You are either an exception or basically in denial. At any rate, perhaps you can choose to get out of denial or choose to help others in getting out of their denial. LOL!

At this present phase of my life, many assume that I am strong and fearless. I must say I am stronger and have less fear than I used to. I overcome the feelings of fear by facing them head-on ready for the risk of failure or success or whatever. When I use this approach, it greatly helped me gain faith adding more courage while fear loses its power. I believe God is pleased when we put our faith and trust in Him. He gives us the courage by giving us His faith to accomplish even the impossible. Many times, I hear people say, I do not have enough faith. My solution is: ask Jesus to deposit His faith in you.

It is like trading our fears with God’s faith. Thus, as the years go by, fear is replaced by faith. Faith increases while fear diminishes. It is more of God’s faith and less of my fear. I am still in the work-in-process to attain fullness of faith that makes one fearless. In the meantime, I can settle with less fear while God is processing me by His faithfulness and making me more like Him…faithful and better yet a woman full of faith.

Now, let’s draw a line how fear can be transformed to faith.

In order to have a better understanding, my definition of fear is expressed in these acronyms:

F. Futile

E. Expressions

A. Avoiding

R. Reality In other words, it is also

F. Futile meaning useless, of no value; counter-productive and self-defeating

E. Expression in thoughts, words and actions

A. Avoiding by running away from it through denial, excuses, etc.

R. Reality In Oxford Dictionary, fear is defined as an “unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm.” The thoughts are provoking the feelings and the latter feed on the former.

Fear can be real or made up. For example, real emotions of fear are like our response to a tragedy like accidents, natural disasters, unpleasant experiences, etc. Made up fears are those defenses or layers of ideas we perceived in our mind that most often does not happen. Research says that 90% of what people fear do not happen.

These are perceived fear (turning to chronic anxieties and never ending worries driving our lives) which we will address in this article. This perceived fear is like rehearsing hell on earth. Fearful people are miserable. The flip-side is FAITH. Faith is like rehearsing heaven on earth. People of faith see miracles even in ordinary and mundane things in life. Fearful people have bitter or sour taste as a lemon. People who are operating in faith add sugar and make lemonade.

On the other side, allow me to define F.A.I.T.H. as

F. Facing

A. All

I Impossibilities

T. Trusting

H. Him (God)

We cannot experience miracles or impossibilities in life by running away and hiding. Yes, we can choose to run away in fear from problems and struggles through denial by self medicating our pain with pleasures in life and other counter/ productive reactions. However, that does not get us out of it. It just prolongs the agony and we go through the same patterns of fear, run, hide, frustrations, failures, etc. creating webs which eventually entangle us.

When I feel fearful, I run too— I run to God. In God, that is where I find comfort, peace, joy and lots of grace to face anything and everything.

We either look at life like a RACE or with GRACE. When we race, we run and compete alone. When G (God) is our priority, we place Him first and foremost before we race forming GRACE. We are no longer alone but God runs alongside with us completing everything through us, for us and with us. Thus, we are able to face anything and everything even those that are impossible.

In summary, let me spell out the meanings of GRACE as compared to RACE.

G. God

R. Running

A. Alongside

C. Completing

E. Everything

 

R. Running

A. Alone

C. Causing

E. Exhaustion

Moreover, there are some other practical ways I deal with fear. I laugh, sing, dance, love and live fully doing good things and serving others just like the frame I have at home reminding me to “Dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth.” William W. Purkey Trading our fears with the faith of God allows us to do even the impossible. Thus, making the “Faithless” “Faithful” “Fearful” “Fearless” “Impossible” “I’m possible” The choice is yours. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33 Always choose “On A Bright Side”. I love you readers with the love of the Lord yet God loves you the most. Smile and be a blessing. . . . Rev. Nancy H. Abiera