I hate bugs. Whether it's a roach, a fly, or a spider, my first impulse is to smash it to a pulp. The list of things and critters I'm afraid of now, or used to be afraid of, is quite long. Barking dogs (when they're barking at me), slithering snakes, dark rooms, police cars (and the po-lice), giggling girls (I mean, what if they're laughing at me?), failure, success — that's just a few of them. I'm also just a little afraid of breaking mirrors, walking under ladders, and facing Friday the thirteenth. Then, of course, there's all those ambushing aliens, meandering madmen, lingering loiterers, and door to door salesmen.

Joking aside, about all of us are afraid of something. Many people can bravely face almost any situation, but get deathly afraid, beyond all reason, when confronted by their particular phobia. We all know people who panic in a tight space, or atop a high building or at the brink of a cliff. Fear of the number thirteen (the technical term is triakaidekaphobia, in case you never wanted to know), as archaic and illogical as it may seem, is still very real to some people. Fear, in fact, has very little to do with logic. It springs out of our most primal urges, for self preservation.

Remember that fear and anxiety are two different things. Fear has a specific object, whether real or imagined. Anxiety, or worry, is more general, and focuses on something that could or might happen. While it may be related to a particular fear, it tends to spread out in many directions. Think of fear as a rifle aimed at a target; anxiety is a shotgun. It may hit the same target, but sprays several others at the same time.

I wrote an earlier devotional about the fear of death (The Kernel, Issue 15). Tracing the relationship between this ultimate fear and other fears lies beyond the scope of this article. The basic techniques for dealing with any kind of fear, though, are the same. We first have to identify, with the Lord's help, those things or situations we are afraid of. Some of our fears are easily spotted, because we are conscious of them always. Others, though, may be disguised as something else, or deeply repressed. Getting at those often requires, at the least, long hours of prayer or, in extreme cases, hours of counseling as well.

Some fears are rooted in experiences we had as children. We may fear rejection or failure or situations involving specific people, animals, or objects because of associations carried over from our early years. I'm not so much interested in the cause of fears, though, as in their elimination. Just asking the Lord to bring to your mind all the various fears that trouble you has value in and of itself; I discovered I was afraid of some things I never even considered. One was a deep-seated fear of rejection by those I cared about. For years that made me very cautious about entering into lasting relationships. It also made me reluctant to openly express my emotions, though that tendency had other causes as well.

Confessing and confronting your fears, then, is the first step. The next step is dealing with each individually. Call each one by name, and take the authority that Christ has given us. Rebuke the fear, command it to lose its hold on you, and give it up to the Lord. Sometimes physically acting out that surrender to the Lord, with your hands, helps the process. Thank the Lord for dealing with the fear, and for removing it from you.

As with worry, the root of all fear is lack of trust in God. The Lord tells us quite specifically that we shouldn't fear those who can kill the body (Satan, and his agents), but the one who can kill destroy body and soul in Hell, God (Matthew 10:28). If we don't know Christ as Savior, we should fear God with utter and complete terror; if we are Christ's, our fear is reverence and awe. God's love is the antidote for fear, for "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear…" (I John 4:18). Paul told his protégé Timothy that "…God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7). Also, never forget whose we are. Our enemy is the Devil, but Christ has overcome him. All of us who are Christ's can proclaim with John, "Greater is he that is in you, than he who is in the world" (I John 4:4). Christ has given us authority and victory over everything that causes us to fear, even death itself. Don't let your life be ruled by fears; give them up to the Lord. Let God's love express itself in and through as you grow in faith. Spend time with him every day, in his Word and in prayer. Let him into all of those closed and shuttered rooms; there is no space for fear when God's love fills you.

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JESUS IS the Bridge Ministries

Beneath His Wings Devotionals - Vol. 1