Overcoming fear, with faith!

Over-coming fear with faith!!

Overcoming fear, with faith!

“Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” ― Suzy Kassem

I first heard these words when I was a drug addict, faced with the opportunity of recovery. I remember the conversation so well, and the fear that surrounded me drowned out any sense of hope for my life.

As this quote echoed in my mind, a small whisper in my head kept saying to me, ‘what if this doesn’t work. What if, I go through all the pain and end up failing!?’ And there was many other ‘what ifs’ that were racing through my mind. My circumstances held me captive through fear! The only ‘what if’ that didn’t seem to be in my mind was, what if it worked?

There seemed to be a battle going on that I couldn’t control (or so I thought).

The reality is I needed assurance in hope… faith. – ‘Hebrews 11.1-Now FAITH is confidence in what we HOPE for and ASSURANCE about what we do not see’.

What was this hope I needed? Where was I going to find it? It couldn’t just be any kind of hope; it had to be a hope that was certain.

Certainty- like if I fell off my chair that I am currently sat on, I know that I would hit the floor without any doubt.

See I had hoped or rather wished for little, for small things like; a job, clean living off the drugs, money and many other things. However, nothing ever worked for long, the hope I needed, had to be stronger than these things!

A woman once shared with me the hope she had. She said it was found in a person by the name of Jesus. This was a hope that had transformed her life in the way I needed! And she proceeded to tell me about His birth, life, death and resurrection, how he was God and yet man, how he took our punishment and yet still loves us. That by his hands, all that we see was created. My mind was a little blown if I am honest. But Faith started to arise in me; I started to say to myself. ‘what if this is real? Could things turn out ok? well surely, they would, in this man’s hands?’

This was the hope I needed.

The Bible says in Romans 10,17 ‘So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’

I had finally ‘heard’ the hope I needed. This was an eternal hope of heaven, but also a very real God who wanted to move in my life now.

And I started to realise that faith is a choice, and asked myself ‘how can we not have faith in certainty.’ I had the choice to believe in this hope, that is Jesus, who is all powerful and all knowing, he knows the beginning from the end. Surely, he wouldn’t start something he wasn’t willing to complete?

(Philippians 1.6 – being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus).

This is a promise for you and me that put our faith in him, or I could continue to listen to that small whisper in the back of my mind, which offered me nothing but fear!

It was faith or rather certainty in hope, that would set me free and break the chains of fear and captivity off my life, but one thing was for sure, I needed faith in something, someone certain.

Hebrews 6.19 ‘We have this hope that is sure and steadfast as anchor of the soul.’

That ‘we’ now included me. I decided not to just trust in this eternal hope of heaven, but in a God who was present now (Psalm 46.1 God is our protection and source of strength. He is always ready to help us in times of trouble). A God who would help me along the way, who loves me and wants to use me too.

I came to realise that I would rather fail at something, than live with the regret of never trying. I had a dream for my life, and I was not willing to let fear steal it. Even if I did fail, I would always have hope, I would always have my faith, and it would be in the unshakable rock, that is Jesus.

For us to obtain this hope, we first must be willing to dream. Su Williams puts it like this- “Dare to dream, for in the daring there is defiance to live beyond your circumstances.” We must Dream big and live a daring life, with an active faith (James 2.14 – Faith without works is dead).

To truly overcome fear, we not only need faith but the willingness to try, no matter what, also we need to know who or what our confidence is in!

Faith in Christ isn’t a wishful hope. It is a certainty of purpose, understanding even if it doesn’t go how we expected it, remembering God’s ways are not our ways.

Romans 8,28 ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’

We might not understand all things, and we don’t always know what tomorrow brings, but what I do know, is that Jesus, my hope is already there.

‘Faith is not the absence of fear. Faith is the absolute presence of courage. It’s the courage to believe that failing is better than not trying. Be not afraid of going slowly, be only afraid of standing still.’ – Jeff Noel

I was recently challenged when I met a little girl, ‘Victoria’- aged 8.

Who, when I mentioned I would like to help people in a small town, she didn’t quite get the concept of fear and circumstances, her words that followed showed this, she said ‘why not the whole world.’ She dared to dream; it just needed action! For a moment fear gripped me, and then words that I remembered at the beginning of my journey, echoed in my mind ‘what if’ but this time it finished with ‘it worked.’ WHAT IF, IT WORKED?

Don’t become the product of fear and broken dreams but overcome fear with faith and Dare to dream! Even in your fears and failures.

-David Taylor-Lewis