We live in a culture of fear. Whether it’s sparked by social media, news reports, movies, or what passes for entertainment in the world, the result is terrified people who can no longer think clearly. This emotion is trying to take over every single area of our lives, but fearful people tend to forget the truth of God’s Word. Fear is a spirit not from God; caving in to it diminishes our quality of life.
We’re living in serious times; fear is trying to take over every single area of our lives, and the enemy wants us to run scared. Fear tries to act like it belongs in our houses and our churches, but it lies to us. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). If we aren’t careful, we’ll start making excuses for being afraid, and that messes up our minds. Fear tolerated is faith contaminated.
Letting fear set up shop in our hearts brings us to a point where we find ourselves stuck in a spiritual prison just like Adam and Eve after they sinned. They went from the beauty of paradise to hiding among the trees because they were afraid of God’s response to what they did (Genesis 3:8-10). We can’t afford to live our lives hiding from our destiny or our purpose because we’re scared of what might happen tomorrow. Fear is essentially the faith of the devil, and he needs us to stay in bondage to it so he can bring his wicked will to pass.
Whatever we focus on is what we give strength to. Spending all day watching bad things happening around us and listening to the world’s troubles feeds the seeds of fear until they grow into giants. We must be good stewards of what we allow into our hearts and minds. It’s our choice to either focus on the trouble or focus on God’s Word of life.
It’s time for us to stop being spiritual sissies running from God and start pushing back against Satan’s efforts to intimidate us. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12). Every time he whispers a doubt or a threat, we need to open our mouths and talk back to him twice as long. We don’t have to prove anything to him, but we do have to stand our ground and refuse to move. We can confidently show up for the battle knowing that God is on our side and He’s bigger than the devil. “…Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
We need to know what to do when fear starts sounding like God and tries to trick us into listening to outside influences. Our most effective strategy is to stay grounded in Scripture so that we can recognize the subtle tweak of deception the enemy uses. Even Peter, right after receiving a revelation from God, started speaking out of fear when Jesus told him the Father’s will, because he was seeing things from a human point of view. We must focus on God’s mature love. “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear…” (1 John 4:18, NLT).
Psalm 91-equipped believers aren’t fooled by the enemy’s voice. We refuse to let fear dictate how we live. Submitting to God and resisting the devil makes him run in fear.
