Is Fear Holding You Back?

Isaiah 41:10 (AMPC)

10 Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.

Fear is defined as a painful emotion or passion excited by the expectation of evil or the apprehension of impending danger.1 When we think of fear, we often associate the word with something very scary. It is often difficult for us to associate with or recognize how we demonstrate human fear in many of our daily practices. Let's look at a few examples.

Have you ever avoided a new task and used the rationale, I need to make sure I know how everything will come together before I …………?

Can you remember a time when you made a decision and, because you were waiting for results longer than you expected or hoped for, quickly changed your decision in hopes that your second choice would yield better results?

What about that new friendship that the Lord is asking you to open your heart to, and instead, you put up your walls to protect your heart because of the remembrance of your previous hurts?

How about that goal you refuse to pursue because you have failed at it many times before?

Or maybe it is the new instructions or task of obedience that the Lord requires of you, and you feel that his requests may cause ………...?

Do any of the above examples seem familiar?

Fear causes us to question God's plan for our lives and reveals the actual state of our hearts about God's love for us. Fear robs us of opportunities to love and be loved, to grow in knowledge, and to be stretched until we experience and are expanded into promotion. Fear causes us to quit and become complacent. Fear steals our God-given identity, dismantles our dreams, and causes us to doubt God's promises.

Do you need to introspect and make adjustments? Believers, it is time to rise up and fulfill all the Lord instructs you to do. Choose faith and not fear.

John 14:27 (AMPC)

27 Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]

THROUGH GOD'S GRACE.

DR. MALLORY GARY

https://payhip.com/Ma57oryMMG77

Reference

Webster, Noah. An American Dictionary of the English Language (New Haven: Hezekia Howe, 1828, s.v. “fear,” accessed 10 August 2024.