Say No To Fear

“There’s hope in front of me
There’s a light, I still see it
There’s a Hand still holding me
Even when I don’t believe it.”

HOPE IN FRONT OF ME by Danny Gokey

Jesus Christ reigns still, my darling readers! He is our hope. And we can be brave like those passionate souls gone before us, in troublesome times. It makes my heart swell with some beautiful, unnamed emotion when I catch a glimpse of the truth – that God’s Hand is holding me, and I can be brave through His strength.

Isaiah 41:10

¹⁰ Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Because I know what it’s like to be drowning in fear. I know what it’s like to lie awake at night, deep within anxiety’s clutches. When it feels like your chest is going to split open and your heart fail within you.

Fear is real. Irrational anxiety is real. Sometimes when I was set off by something … news of a shooting, an alarming disease, terrorist attacks, the presidential race … I would go into a daze of sorts, walking around as if I were stuck in a terrifying nightmare.

I would retreat within myself. Not talk. Watch fascinating movie after movie, where ordinary people defeat imaginative monsters, as if that would somehow make everything better when my reality was crumbling around me.

Sometimes I agonized over the thought: What if somebody I love dies? I could imagine the accident. See their face, still in death. Feel the tearing, searing, unbearable emotions of them being gone forever and I didn’t say ‘I love you’ … Tell them everything they meant to me. Hug them one last time.

Flying on airplanes, vacations, being out in a boat, sometimes just getting into the car struck dread in my heart.

Sometimes feelings of fear constricted my soul so that I literally cried out, unable to stop myself.

It’s been a long journey. Years. I went to a single counseling session a few years back. I wrote a novel that somehow pulled out the deepest emotions of my soul. And something opened within me. I started talking, to my mom, my aunt, my friends, about my anxious heart and many fears. I described what I felt, and listened to their experiences. I learned how to pray to God: “Help me, Lord! I’m afraid! But You are here. I know You are here. Help my unbelief.”

See, I felt the need to control everything. I didn’t know if I could really, really trust God. I had to open my heart to Him. To pray again and again: “Help me surrender”. To be honest and real and raw when I cried out to Him.

And that’s shown me something. While my feelings are real, they are not always true. But God is truth. He is. And His ways are higher than mine. When I cling to that, with all that I am, I’m able to see the dawning light. I’m able to see that His hand is holding mine.

Psalm 34:4

⁴ I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.

Psalm 94:19

¹⁹ In the multitude of my anxieties within me,
Your comforts delight my soul.

The enemy, Satan, likes us to think we’re alone. He likes us to doubt God, to wonder if we can trust Him. He wants us to be fearful, fretting, listless, and without hope.

It’s time to say, “No.” I happened to come across a clip of Sadie Robertson speaking about anxiety. Seems she’s struggled heavily with fear as well. She said something that struck me: that we defend our fear; we say “It’s okay, I have anxiety.” That’s why I feel this way. That’s why I can’t do this.

But my friends, we don’t have to live like that! We don’t have to cry through anxious nights and struggle through fearful days – that’s not what God wants for us! He wants joy for us. Peace. Hope. Passion. LIFE.

John 14:27

²⁷ Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

We need to fight! It’s not over! Darkness has not claimed the victory. In fact, the victory is ours, through Jesus Christ!

I still struggle with fear and anxiety. It’s an ongoing battle. But I sense myself strengthening, with His strength. When those feelings of dread clutch at me, I cry out to God right away.

Don’t linger in  your feelings of fear. Talk about what you feel with people you trust.

Call out to God. Pray. Talk. Read Psalms aloud. Fight.

King David had fear and anxieties, and because of that, some of the Psalms have been so powerful to me.

We are not alone. And He will never leave us, nor forsake us. No. Matter. What.

“I know who goes before me,
I know who stands behind

The God of angel armies
Is always by my side.”

WHOM SHALL I FEAR by Chris Tomlin