Fear

I've written about fear before. It is true that when faith exists, fear has no place to go. Fear can never coexist with Faith - faith is always stronger. Do notice that I never said it was easier. Do you have fears in your life? Most people do and attempt to avoid them at all costs... and rarely deal with them so they are powerless. Problem is - if you do fear (fill in the blank) and you don't deal with it, it will always emerge at an inopportune moment. Fear typically cripples us and makes us ineffective. Why give fear that power? Until you face your fears, they will control you! And never use the excuse that you can't do anything about them... you can always change your attitude and completely weaken their impact in your life.

How do you go about reducing the effects of fear and eliminated them? You have to (in my estimation) begin with analyzing what your fears are and their level of strength/control over you. While none of us really want fear to control us, when we don't deal with them... they do. Take one fear at a time. Look at it. How did it originate? How does it manifest in your life? When it emerges, what is it that you do? What is it you think you need to do to eliminate the fear? What will you do to not succumb? 

Now... what exists in your faith that can strengthen you against that fear? What is it you don't have that you think you need to overcome? Will you take the steps necessary to equip yourself? Faith is powerful and if you look in your Bible you will receive a many scriptures that you can use against the fear. Remember what Jesus did when He was tempted in the desert? While He wasn't operating in fear, I think He gave us a strategy to use against the devil when he attempts to use fear against us. He said... 'it is written.' Every time the devil tempted Him, He spoke against it. We can use this strategy as well. Use scriptures to combat the fear. Sounds like a plan to me! Remember, 

   "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
    who loved us." (Romans 8:37 NKJV)

Ephesians 6 talks about the whole armor of God...which is available to ALL who call Jesus, Lord. Verse 13 says,"...and having done all to stand, Stand..." We CAN stand against fear and its crippling affects:

   "...above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to
    quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one..." (v. 16) 

Fear is a defeated foe... we just need to act on this. Recently I received a post from a friend's blog where she was talking about a fear that she had since childhood. It had crippled her until she realized whose she was and the power He gives us over fear. That's a message everyone needs to hear and apply. Have you overcome your fears? Do you want to?