Overcoming Fear

I remember my first real roller coaster ride. I rode with two older girls. I was scared out of mind, but they weren't. I could not back out, or let them know how I felt. I stood in line perfectly willing for it to take a long time to reach that coaster. I remember the anxiety as we started up the big hill. I could hear the chain clanking as it tugged the coaster to the top. My stomach dropped when we crested, and descended the other side. After twisting and turning, we finally reached the end. It was not as bad as I first thought. IT WAS WORSE. I still rode it again, and  have ridden much taller and faster coasters with loops since then.

I don't like snakes. I detest them. When a guy brought a snake into our classroom and asked for volunteers to touch it, I shrank like a violet in the back of the room. On a field trip to a zoo many years ago with one of my sons, a worker asked for volunteers to touch the snake. I did not want to, but had to overcome fear and touched it. Two years ago I preached a youth camp in Panama Beach, Florida. We ate at a restaurant one night where you   could hold a live baby alligator. Of course they had the mouth taped shut. I jumped in. I held that little gator overcoming fear again.

So many people are ruled and paralyzed by fear. We are often told in the Bible not to fear. My favorite verse when it comes to overcoming fear is II Tim 1:7

2 Timothy 1:7 (NASB)
⁷  For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

 The word timidity can also  be translated as fear or cowardice. Fear is everywhere. With just the mention of a few topics fear surfaces like a coiled serpent ready to strike. The stock market. Coronavirus. Globalists. The New World Order. Flu. Social Security. Terrorism. ISIS.

There is no shortage of things for people to fear. People generally are prone to fear and cowardice. If God did not give that to us, where did it come from. Satan loves to produce fear, panic, cowardice and timidity in people. So fearful are some people they live imprisoned by those fears. If you are one of those people, I challenge you to memorize this verse and to quote it often.

Fear can also hinder a person from following and obeying God. You cannot be a true person of faith, and God not ask you to step out in and through fearful situations. Faith steps are often steps right through fear.

You have to make the choice if you will be a person of faith, or a person of fear. I think Paul's scripture to Timothy above leads us in our choosing. Choose faith over fear.