Do Not Fear

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Fear incapacitates, immobilizes, stagnates and brings about loss of vision and direction. Fear is a tool that the enemy enjoys using against believers to truncate the plans and purposes of God in their lives. A number of Biblical examples include:

The use of fear against the army of Israel by Goliath is an interesting case study. Through Goliath’s intimidating stature and boastful words, the devil succeeded in instilling fear in the hearts of the soldiers of Israel. A well equipped and well prepared army of hundreds of thousands able men who left their homes to fight the Philistine army cowered in fright because Goliath, a giant boasted of his might. What a shame especially when a mere youth who had never served in the army brought Goliath down. So it was not necessarily Goliath’s stature that incapacitated and immobilized the army of Israel. It was the fear he spewed out through his intimidating words. Please see 1^st Samuel Chapter 17.

Fear was also the reason Lot took a decision to go live in a cave in the mountains instead of Zoar where he escaped to safety from Sodom and Gomorrah. Living in a cave alone with two grown up daughters led to the incestuous union that produced Moab and Ammon. Fear births wrong decisions.

The Israelites at a time in their history threshed wheat in winepresses because they were afraid of the Midianites whose pastime was to destroy the livelihoods of the Israelites in order to impoverish them. God empowered Gideon with great faith to overcome fear and destroy the Midianites. Please see Judges Chapter 6.

Fear can also be crippling; in point of fact so crippling that it leads to bondage and servitude as in the case of the Gibeonites who assented to become woodcutter and water carriers for Israel. Please see Judges Chapter 9. Though they deceived Joshua and the leaders of Israel into entering a covenant of peace and protection with them, that deception borne out of fear made them wood cutters and water carriers in Israel. In essence, fear can lead to forced labor and forced labor does not lead to success.

Fear truncated Peter’s walk on the sea. What he began in faith in response to Jesus’ invitation came to an abrupt end because of fear. Beloved, fear has the capacity to impose limits on a person if a person allows fear. Please see Matthew Chapter 14 verses 24 to 33.

Fortunately, the Bible has the panacea for fear which is the word of God. The panacea is absolute belief or faith in the word of God. When you choose to believe the word of God as the absolute truth over any facts or situations that appear to defy the word of God, you walk in faith and because the word of God energizes and gives peace, fear will automatically disappear. David could have responded in fear to the words of Goliath. But David’s faith in God and the word of God energized him to take up arms against Goliath. You can do the same today and obtain the same results that David obtained – defeat and destroy every Goliath in your path irrespective of how big and formidable they appear. Goliaths of repeated failure, ignorance, financial challenges and whatever can be defeated if you choose faith over fear. I pray that God in His infinite mercy and love will destroy every stronghold of fear in your life in Jesus mighty name. Receive grace and power from God to walk in faith and victory in Jesus mighty name. Shalom.

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