You can't fight fear with courage

If you aren’t guarding your heart carefully, all of your choices can very easily give way to a spirit of fear, where everything is something worthy of terror.

Oct 08, 2024

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. (1 John 4:18)

I’m not a dog person, but I like dogs. They’re amazing creatures, so loyal and so fierce, and not a day goes by that I don’t think about my old dog Trixie. That old mutt was the best girl. A Border Collie mixed with a German Shepherd, she was too smart for her own good. At least, she was until she got scared.

And she was scared of everything.

Everything.

She was scared of her bed. She was scared of her house. She was scared of the duck decoy we gave her to play with. She was scared of her water bowl. She was scared of her food bowl. She was just—scared. All the time.

Great guard dog, right?

Have you ever met a person like that? A person who is scared of everything? They are worst-case scenario people. They are the overly critical voices in every meeting. They are the doomsayers, the Negative Nancies, and the fearmongers in every relationship.

If something can go wrong, it will. That’s their life’s motto. And they aren’t always wrong. Unfortunately, folks with that sort of outlook on life tend to generate their own self-fulfilling prophecies.

And that’s not to say that being aware of potential problems isn’t wise. It is. Part of being a good steward of our lives is to consider all possible outcomes with any decision we make, but if we let fear creep into our decision-making process, we will end up choosing paths that lead to ultimate failure.

There are many places in Scripture where God talks about the different spirits that exist in the world, and we’re not going to spend a lot of time talking about that. But one “spirit” that comes up in the Bible a lot is the spirit of fear.

It’s a tricky one, the spirit of fear. It’s good at hiding, masquerading as being responsible or being aware or being concerned. Sure, those are all good things, but if you aren’t guarding your heart carefully, all of those can very easily give way to a spirit of fear, where everything is something worthy of terror.

And, my friends, if you know Jesus, you don’t need to live in fear. That’s what this verse is about. Fear controls us, manipulates us into hiding who God made us to be because we are afraid of what others think or say. And if you give in to fear, it’s because you don’t truly understand love.

That’s the trick. You don’t fight fear with courage or bravery. You fight fear with love.

So the next time you feel fear creeping up into your heart and your mind, take a moment to breathe. Pray. Remind yourself who God is. Remind yourself what Jesus did for you. And remind yourself that the price is paid, and you are free.

The only way fear can have any control over your decisions now is if you surrender to it.