Hey, ya’ll! It’s Alejandra with the last and final week of the “fear” series. Last week I challenged you to look at some things that you may have to forgive yourself for and that some of you may have to come out of your “mental prison,” thinking you are constantly being punished by God.  Now, this week I want to speak about how to capture fear before it continues to spread.  Let’s get to it…

Tackling fear hasn’t been an easy road for me as most of you know from the previous weeks.  We’ve learned that fear can be a “belief” that something or someone is trying to hurt you in week one.   We also uncovered that love is the opposite of fear and last week I shared about my belief that I was being punished by God, but all it took was His perfect love to cast out that fearful lie. This week I want to close by talking about the importance of catching fear before it spreads and how it paralyzes you.  I want to talk about the importance of surrounding yourself with amazing truth bearers who will speak the truth in love into your life.

Paralyzed

My friend Sarah once told me, “Fear is like a spark in the woods; if you don’t catch it in time, it will spread like a wildfire, destroying you and everything in your life.” This couldn’t be truer.  I’ve allowed fear to destroy relationships in my life and my ruin my faith.  Fear had paralyzed me, and I was blind to hold it had over me.

How does fear paralyze you?  Well for me, there were many phrases that people would say that would easily flame my fear.  For example, “The closer you are to God, the bigger the Devil you’ll have to fight.”  So this made me think, “Okay, then I’ll remain in the safe zone and not get too close.”  There was even a scripture to back it up.  James 1:2-4 says,

“When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”

So after reading this passage, full of fear, I thought, “Okay, if I don’t get close to God then I won’t go through too many trials, because what if the trials are harder than I can handle.”   So I was basically walking around stagnant, never choosing to grow my faith, but I was o.k. with that because as long as I stood in my “safe box” then nothing would happen to me. WRONG!

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33  

Regardless of what I thought, we will face troubles there is no running from that. The issue is whether to go through our problems with God or without Him. And I choose, to go through troubles with Him as the center of my life.  Fear can cause us to back down from things in life that we were created to conquer.  It can “paralyze” us keeping us from moving and growing.  Knowing that as a child of God, He will never leave me nor forsake me and that He will provide strength to me for all my battles, I confront my trials not with fear but with courage.   I get empowered by relying on scriptures like, 2 Corinthians 2:19 which says, “Where I am weak, He is made strong” because without Him I am just plain old weak.  God used my husband and the Through The Winters family to help shine light on my fear.  Which brings me to my next point.  The importance of the company you keep, as I spoke about in the “Love Yourself Journey.”

Truth Bearers!

God put some pretty amazing people in my life, people who challenge me and who speak the truth even when I do not want to hear it.  We need people in our lives to be “truth bearers”.  What’s a truth bearer?  They are those who speak to build you up, not fuel your fears.  People that, with love, will cause you to see your actions and the results they bring.  They do not always tell you what you want to hear or believe, but instead tell you what you need to hear.  They are not self-serving, and instead are sacrificial in helping you grow.   The ones I allowed to become this in my life began to speak to me, and they did it in love driving out my fears one by one.  It is not enough to have a “truth bearer” in your life, you have to be willing to let them have that access into your heart.  This is why it is so important who you place in this position.

My husband has become one of those people for me.  Let me tell you about a funny and yet not so funny conversation I had with my husband at the supermarket.  I was dealing with depression that day and I couldn’t enjoy the day at all.  I was walking around all gloomy I was so fed up with the day.

I told my husband David, “I think I have a tumor.”

He said, “Why?”

“I feel as though my eye is throbbing…” and I went on and on. I don’t remember the exact things I told him to convince him, but my husband, being a paramedic along with all his medical schooling, looked at me, and with the utmost love and said, “What you just explained is physically and medically impossible.”

Can you believe that at that moment all False Evidence Appearing Real left me that day? This is what I mean by truth in love.  He didn’t shame me because of what I was dealing with, or make me feel less than I was.  With love, he helped me through my fears.  He spoke to me in a way I could understand and receive. The Bible speaks to us so much about those people we surround ourselves with.  It is true, we cannot choose our family members, but we can definitely choose who we surround ourselves with.

Ephesians 4:1,

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ.”

Proverbs 27:17,

“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.”

Proverbs 18:21,

“The tongue has the power of life and death”

Our thoughts continuously need to be on God and on who He is in our lives.  We do that by reading the Bible more and retaining what we read in our hearts, but also by surrounding ourselves with people who do not walk in defeat.  If we feed our fears instead of our faith then we aren’t really doing anything progressive.  In simpler terms, stop being around those who help you stay in fear, in doubt, depression, and who are down in spirit for comfort and guidance.  How can they in that state of mind help you?  We need people that will tell us the truth in love like Ephesians 4:1. My husband could have easily said, “Ugh, you and your stupid depression,” but instead he chose to speak to me about my concern in love.  We need someone to sharpen us like iron sharpens iron.

As we conclude this series, I want to thank you for joining me and for being patient with this journey.   I urge you to review this series whenever fear tries to creep back in.  Together we have defined fear, understood the opposite of fear which is love, learned that God’s love can drive out each of our fears, and that we must take the proper measures to catch fear before it becomes a wildfire, destroying everything around us.

Let’s pray:

Dear God, help us as we conclude this journey. Shine your light to show us where fear has been lingering and help us deal with it. Bring us to understand each truth you’ve helped us understand through this journey. Guide us Lord, and put the proper people in our lives to help us through our sorrows. We thank you for all you’ve done in us through this ministry. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen!

Weekly Challenge:

As we end our month talking about fear, it would be great if you would join us in May for our series on Steven Furtick’s book, “Unqualified”.  This book is centered around our warped thinking that we need to fit into the world’s box of competency.  The world rejects us when we don’t fit their mold and sometimes we join them in critique.  Take the time to think about which areas your fear may have disqualified you from the future God has for you.  You can purchase the book on our website if you want to follow us in this study.  Please join us next week.  Also, if you haven’t already, subscribe to receive weekly letters, updates, contests, and giveaways.   Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @throughthewinters.