Day 14: Overcoming fear.

Nothing exposes a man’s frailty more than what he fears.

Fear robs you of peace and hinders faith; it silences you. Fear can grow both in reality and in the realm of our imagination, and it doesn’t discriminate by age. If you have the capacity to think, you have the capacity to fear. Once fear takes root, it anchors itself in every facet of our being until we are no longer able to live freely. It is slavery in its truest form.

Before coming to know God, I feared everything. At one point, fear consumed my every thought to the extent that I was unable to get out of bed or leave my house. It was debilitating, irrational, and maddening. Being captive to sin is one thing, but when your mind has you enslaved, there is nowhere to escape.

As a child and continuing up to my salvation, I believed that performing certain actions in a specific way could prevent bad things from happening. For instance, I thought that if I didn’t change my jewelry, I’d remain safe, or if I stayed home, I wouldn’t die that day. I believed that if I could dismiss these thoughts quickly enough, they wouldn’t come true. I was trapped in a constant state of fear, convinced that my well-being depended on my ability to perform these rituals consistently.

Doctors have a term for this now: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I prayed and fasted for healing, but He chose not to remove it. Reflecting on it now, I understand why He didn’t. At the time, I was praying for healing, but I hadn’t established my faith in Him yet. I didn’t understand who He really was or who I was in Him. This mindset kept me at His feet until I had a foundation to stand on.

His words are my foundation. I know that His words are not just words but promises. So, when His word promises me that He didn’t give me a spirit of fear but of self-control and a sound mind, I can trust it. Why? Because I can trust Him.

His word healed me. Psalm 107:19-20 says, “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.” I cried out in my distress, and His word brought me healing and deliverance from the strongholds of fear and doubt.

When I learned that OCD was the manifestation of fear from uncertainty and doubt, I repented. I realized that the root of uncertainty and doubt is simply a lack of trust, and anything that controls us is a stronghold, which goes against His word and promises.

Paul’s whole ministry was about destroying arguments (which are just claims) and opinions (which are views not based on facts or knowledge) that exalt themselves higher than the knowledge of God. Accepting anything and everything that goes against His truth is essentially agreeing that it is greater than God. If you believe that, then you don’t know God at all, and you can never trust in someone you don’t know.

You see, you may not struggle with fear to the degree that I did, but fear is magnified to match your doubt and uncertainty. The bigger the doubt, the bigger the fear. You can only overcome fear with faith. Faith is complete trust. But trust in what? In God or in the things that go against His word? Both require a measure of belief, but only one sets you free.