Fear Factor

All people experience fear; it’s a part of life. What we fear can be very different. Nine out of ten people are terrified by the thought of speaking before groups. One of my biggest fears is needles. I also fear roller coasters, heights and I really don’t care to be around snakes and spiders.

So there are some of my fears. No matter how foolish or humorous someone else’s fears may look to us, our own fears seem very serious and real. The thing to keep in mind is this; if we allow these fears to control our lives, it can stop us from making progress and growing and being used by God.

We all have core fears as well. Things like fear of being rejected, fear of failure, fear of loneliness, fear of being misunderstood, fear of feeling unimportant.

These deep fears can cause a lot of damage in our lives. They can keep us from making progress in our relationships with people and with God. Fear can paralyze us and keep us from experiencing the life that God has for us. Most of the time the things we fear have been blown way out of proportion. We build things up in our mind to the point where we can’t function properly. Fear can cause us to procrastinate and not do those hard, difficult things we know we need to do. Fear keeps us from being honest with people.

So how do we overcome our fears? For me I have had to face the needle and my roof. I have had to get shots, have blood drawn and had IVs put in. Each time I knew this was coming I had anxiety and fear. It was so bad, that often times I would faint during the procedure. I still struggle with this, but have learned to keep myself more calm and relaxed before hand. As for my fear of heights, I used to not be able to get up on my roof. Cleaning my gutters was a very stressful thing. But I faced that fear and started on one end of the roof that felt safer and worked my way to the steepest end. Now I can walk directly to the steep end.

My point is that we need to face our fears, because they are never as bad as we make them up to be. John Maxwell said it this way “Fear breeds inaction; inaction leads to lack of experience; lack of experience fosters ignorance; and ignorance breeds fear.”

So what are you missing in life because of fear? What experiences are you missing? What opportunities are you missing? Don’t let fear paralyze you; push through that fear and face it. Don’t wait to take that next step, make that tough call, have that tough talk or make that big decision. Invite God to partner with you on overcoming your fears. The Bible is full of fear not statements. God does not want us to have a spirit of fear. If we plug into His power, we can overcome those fears. On the other side of fear is progress, growth, joy and peace.

One Reply to “Fear Factor”

  1. Chad ~

    I loved your blog about fear. Wanted to share with you an e-mail I just sent along the same lines. Kinda long but here it is:

    “Hi Maureen ~

    How’ve you been? What’s new?

    Guess what. I’m taking SCUBA diving lessons! Go ahead and say it….I must be nuts! Sometimes I think I am too. It’s scary … but fun too. The instructor who gave me my intro scuba lesson knew I was scared. After I went through with it and did fine (and didn’t die or anything yucky like that), he said to me, “Don’t ever let fear stop you from doing something you want to do.” WOW! What a great piece of advice. Since then God’s been confirming to me some ‘deep’ truths (get it, ‘deep’ … scuba diving…LOL). He seems to be telling me that he wants me to live life to the fullest and fulfill the purpose He has for me. He is always there with me so, even though life seems scary and uncertain, like diving into the ocean, he will never leave me or forsake me – I can count on Him. I can walk through the fearful places, with Him, and come out the other side in victory and see awesome and wonderful things I never had before.

    It’s really interesting that my awesome church is currently on a sermon series entitled ‘One Month to Live’ that is trying to get everyone to really focus their lives. To determine the most important things and get those done so that we can live a life of ‘no regrets’.

    I’m not sure why I’m telling you all of this except that maybe God wants to encourage you too. If you’d like to, you could check out a sermon or two (or watch live on Sundays at 9:00am or 11:00am); just go to http://www.newpointechurch.org and click on the ‘Watch/Listen Live’ link or go to the ‘Services – Messages Online’ (sermon archives for past services) and click on the One Month to Live icon. I think you’ll be glad you did.

    Feel free to send me questions or comments if you tune in. I’d love to be an encouragement to you in any way possible.

    Love and blessings,
    Lori”

    So please pray that Maureen does ‘tune in’ and get the life-saving, fear-conquering messsage of Jesus Christ. Thanks.

    Lori Zambie

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