Fear – Part 2

Last updated on January 19, 2023

Welcome back to this series on fear.  Last time we talked about why we fear and some of its unhealthy effects. I hinted at the end of that post that we can use fear as a tool for growth when we are alert to it within ourselves and seek to be its master rather than its slave.

No Longer Slaves to Fear

When I speak of being the master of our fear, I do not mean that we stifle the fear, pushing it down and pretending it’s not there.  That’s unhealthy.  That will create the same sort of prison and controlling patterns we mentioned last time.  When I say master of our fear, I mean that we are the authority over it.

We run it. It doesn’t run us. The fear is there, whether we like it or not. It’s what we do with it that makes the difference. 

To be able to decide what to do with it, we first have to understand where it’s coming from. What’s deep down at the root of it?

Let’s move through a little exercise together.

Think of something you’re afraid of.  It doesn’t need to be a big thing.  Pick something small. Something just a little bit scary.

For me, getting back online and posting on this blog after many months of hiatus brings up fear. That fear is even partially the reason for the hiatus, if I’m honest.  (Also my family has moved, again, and some intense challenges have come up with members of my household that I needed to take the time to address. Hashtag life happens.)

Got your something?

What frightens you about it? Getting hurt? Hurting someone? Having to do something you don’t want to do? Being ridiculed? Losing relationships? Failure? Success? Limitless options here, aren’t there?

With the blog, I fear I won’t be consistent and post every week like I hope. I fear no one will have any interest in what I am talking about and I’ll be talking to the air, making zero impact on the world. I fear people will take to what I am sharing so strongly that the blog will explode and I won’t know how to keep it up.  I fear I’ll say something wrong and have to go back and correct what I said.  Or I’ll say something right and not everyone is gonna be a happy reader about it.

Got what frightens you about your something? Okay. Let’s dig deeper.

What is the root of that fear? This is the part that can be a struggle to see.  I think it’s because this takes some slowing down and being honest with ourselves, and a willingness to look at what we find.  It may take some deep thinking and prayerful searching to unearth the answer to this question. We may even need to talk to a friend or counselor who knows us, or who knows the right questions to help us get down, sometimes waaaay down, to identifying the root of the fear.

Roots of the blog fears I have:

• Shame
• Worthlessness
• Inadequacy
• Fallibility
• Opposition/Persecution

And….there’s my ugly, right out there in front of God and everybody.  *shudder*

It hurts to look at it.  I just want to take those words and highlight-delete. 

But that would only continue to enslave me to those fears, because I wouldn’t be dealing with them, and they would grow. The greater we let fear grow, the more power it holds over our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths, and the more resistant we’ll be to seeing God as our God and walking in obedience to what He’s called each of us to.

But when we decide fear will be our teacher on this journey of growth, rather than our master, we are on our way to freedom.

If you are afraid of saying something, doing something, thinking something, entering into or pursuing something….heads up! God is allowing you to see that wisdom is needed, that He has a fear-free way for you as His precious child, and He is waiting for you to be willing to grow in His truth.

He wants you to be wise (Romans 16:19). He wants to give you wisdom (James 1:5). You must encounter the fear with God’s help, dig down beneath the root of it in the soil of your mind, heart, and soul and rip that sucker out! Give it to God, in all its hideous glory, and call out for Him to replace it with life-giving seeds of His love that He will tend in your soul.

I promise He does that.  He wants to do that for you.  For us.

Hang on to what you’ve discovered about yourself in this post. You’ll need that information next time when we’ll get into the practicals of why God says we don’t need to fear and how we walk in power, love, and a sound mind instead.

Share Your Story

If you’re feeling brave enough, share with us in the comments something that jumped out at you about enslavement to or freedom from fear. If you’re feeling really brave, share the root of your fear like I did!