Let God be the conqueror

Personal Photo: Rice Lake, Ontario, 2018

Fear. I think we have all experienced it, right? Fear comes in many different forms, like the breath-taking, freezing fear, the sudden rush of emotions, the slow overwhelming feeling of reality hitting us, and so many more. Truly, fear is a shapeshifter, and one that we all know well. It can take our joys and turn them into opportunities to be afraid, it can transform our sunshine into ominous storm clouds, and it feeds upon our sinful flesh to grow and change along with us. Fear, plain and simple, is the devil. Satan uses fear to halt us in our tracks and make us lose our trust and question our faith. Our brains know this, but our hearts take much more convincing, especially when considering the unknowns.

Fear is a topic I have not touched on yet in my articles, as it comes alive in the shadows of our minds and sticks its deep roots into personal experiences and interpretations. Fear can be a slippery concept, but an even more slippery beast to harness. I chose to discuss this monster of ours this week because fear is sneaky, and it can easily find its way into our daily lives. It can trick us, make us change who we are, and it puts distance between us and our loving Father. It is something we all need to face at some point, and finding ways to understand what we fear, why we fear it, and how to squelch fear when it knocks on the doors of our hearts, can be quite helpful while we travel along this journey of life.

I think the main reason fear works on us and why Satan keeps using it is because it makes us think about the unknowns. Our bubbles that we live in are so small and secluded when we think about all there is to possibly know, that understanding how little we actually do know is overwhelming. Is there a stranger in those shadows? What if something terrible happens to my spouse? What if I do not get into my dream college? What if I don’t make the team? Did I remember my homework? Did I word that email right? Why doesn’t that person like me? Will my children be safe? There are so many questions we ask ourselves on a daily basis, ones that assault us when we are trying to do our best. We all have goals, some big ones and some small ones, but regardless of the size, they all go hand in hand with Satan’s opportunity to make us question the path that God has laid out for us. Again, I think we usually can think about the truth of God having a plan mapped out for us but trusting in that plan and not fearing that the plan He has for us will disappoint us or challenge us past what we are capable of is a bit harder. Again, our hearts take more convincing.

God's plans are one of the hardest mysteries for us to trust in. Inherently, as humans, we want to know what is going on, we want to be in control, we want to have power over our destiny. Sometimes I think about this and consider how difficult it is for me to balance all the things I have in my life. I could not possibly make the most out of my opportunities on my own. I am so grateful to God that He is in charge. We are reminded to "trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)." He has the ability and the love and the grace to manage it all and be with us all. With that being said, however, fear takes hold when we take our eyes off of God, when we try to manage it all and get overwhelmed with the questions in life. It reminds me of Peter when he was walking on the water. When Jesus appeared: “'Lord, if it’s You,' Peter replied, 'tell me to come to you on the water.' 'Come,' He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' He said, 'why did you doubt?' (Matthew 14:28-31)” Peter only began to struggle when he took his eyes off of Jesus, and the same goes for us, when we focus on everything that swirls around us and we fail to put our trust in God's power. It strikes when we consider the joys we have in life being taken away from us, the disapproval of a peer, the inability to align ourselves with the goals we have set. This is the part about understanding what it is that we fear. We fear the unknown. We fear the inevitable change that comes with time. We fear permanence. We fear drowning in everything. The list goes on.

I mentioned earlier that Satan uses fear as a tool to make us question our faith. We fear the unknown because it is out of our power. Satan uses the things we do know, such as: people age, people will have problems with us, we make mistakes, we fail sometimes, people can be dangerous; and he makes them more important in our minds than the faith we have put into God's almighty plan. He uses our sinful flesh to rely on the things we can understand, like people not being able to walk on water, not the things we cannot understand, like God's performance of miracles, His abounding love and His everlasting grace. It is difficult to trust in something we do not understand. It can be hard to wrap our heads around it and find steadiness in trusting in the unknown, rather than fearing it. Along this vein, fear is a great tool of Satan's because it freezes us in our tracks. We lose our rational thinking when it comes to fear, making it less likely for us to go to God and put our trust back into Him, taking it away from Satan.

When we think of all the ways that fear can come into our lives, the list gets quite long. It can be something like second-guessing ourselves, lack of confidence in ourselves, difficulty grappling with death and sadness, and so much more. I titled the article, 'Let God be the conqueror' because this is the key for us handling fear. Finding ways to make our thoughts and our actions obey God and bow to His word is important, and in my opinion, not talked about enough. Too often, our world focuses on medications we can take, how many bad people there are in the world, the ways in which our lives can spiral into a storm. Again, when we focus on these things, we are allowing Satan to tempt us into fearing the unknown instead of trusting in God's plan and His understanding. The power of trusting in God is staggering. The power of God when we bring our fears to Him is freeing. The key to conquering fear is always in our hand and in our hearts, giving us the choice to focus on God, let Him in and take control of our fears. We just don't use into it enough.

Along this vein, I have a bad habit of putting an enormous amount of pressure on myself. I am terrified of disappointing someone. I want people to like me, I don't want to make a mistake, I want to prove I can do a good job. As an example, whenever I have a meeting for work, I find myself quite nervous for it, even though I know I am personable, I am kind, I am smart, and I can make it through the meeting. I am nervous because what if they ask me a question I do not know, what if I make a mistake, what if I am not qualified, etc. I fear the unknowns in the situation. It makes my heart speed up and my hands shake, and it makes my words sound clumsy and I spiral until I feel like I failed. I take my eyes off of Jesus and I find myself sinking. I needed to find a way to conquer this fear. I found that ten minutes before the meeting, if I sit at my desk and I write down my prayers, I let God into my heart and He slams the door on fear, every single time. Just like Peter, He grabs my hand and saves me from spiraling into my fears. I write line after line of 'I trust you, Lord, I trust you, Lord" until I shut down the devil's feeble attempts at halting me and my journey with God. God will always conquer fear, He will always destroy the devil's power, and He will grab our hands, and embrace us and our insecurities, no matter how many times we need reassurance.

I think when we consider how many times fear seeps into our lives, it can put into perspective how much we struggle with. A lot of our problems can be put under fear's category, mainly because it has such an ambiguous meaning. These weaknesses of ours the devil tries to use to define us, but when we give the power of our fears over to God, He conquers every fear, reminding us that "For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you (Isaiah 41:13)." All of our fears can be lain at the feet of God and when we submit to His power, He will calm our fears, every single time.

When we look at conquering fear, taking power away from Satan, trusting in God to carry us through what we do not understand and what we do not know, it really can feel like a lot of things going on at once. However, the first step--the biggest step--is when we experience fear, recognize it, and go directly to God. This step, this complete act of trust, happens when we do not let the fear take hold, frazzle our emotions, or change our course. We cannot live in fear. We are reminded in Psalm 27:1, that "The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?" The devil's world seeks to use fear as a way to crush the soul and keep our eyes off of Jesus, but when we focus on God and trust in Him to face the unknowns with us, the small fears, and the big ones, we find that we truly have no reason to be afraid. God crushes the devil, conquers our fears, and has redeemed us already. We have no reason to be afraid, but this does not mean that we never experience fear. It is part of our lives. It is one of Satan's most effective ways in exercising power over us. When we recognize fear showing up in our lives, we can bring it right to God, keep our focus on Him amidst the storm, and His power will never cease to demolish Satan's attempts at freezing us up and grab our hands when we start to sink.

I think fear is something we can all work on as we go through life. Earlier, I talked about how fear is always changing. It clings to the things we love, making the unknowns scary and dangerous. It makes calm waters seem choppy and rough. However, it is important to recognize that regardless of the fear, what it changes into, what it clings to, we can always bring it to God, and He will be the conqueror. We can remember that "I sought the LORD, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4)." We alone cannot destroy Satan and his attempts to make fear our focus, but instead, when we bring them to the Lord, when we keep our eyes on Jesus, we are allowing Him space in our hearts and lives to kill the roots of fears and carry us through the storms of the unknown.