The fears we are addressing today are not the healthy fears that warn us of danger, like an open flame or a bear in our path. We are addressing the fears we have learned from childhood like being afraid of the dark, snakes, failing, not measuring up, etc. We want to look at those fears that hold us captive and stop us from the life God created us for.

And courage. I don’t know about you, but I grew up believing that being courageous meant that you had no fears. That’s not true though. Being courageous means that you move forward while experiencing fear. That takes courage.

I have learned that we are born with only 2 fears, the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises; all others are learned through our experiences.

In his book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Mark Batterson shares, “Those defining experiences can plant a seed of confidence or a seed of doubt, a seed of hope or a seed of helplessness, a seed of faith or a seed of fear.”

Fortunately, when we live in fear, we are only one decision away from living in faith. Every choice we make has the ability to change the trajectory of our lives; from fear to faith.

Today I will share with you a little of my own faith journey and how I have been able to move from a fear-filled little girl to experiencing God’s freedom in spite of a traumatic accident. 

Growing up, I knew of God. I didn’t know God. He seemed distant and uninvolved in my life. 

By fifth grade I was so riddled with fear that I bit my nails until they bled and had constant stomach aches. As I grew, my fears continued. I was afraid to talk to anyone outside of my few close friends and hated speaking in front of the class. It made my stomach rebel inside my body. 

It’s interesting to me how I was so fearful in those situations but when it came to going into my family’s barn, I was all too eager to climb up to the large supporting beam so that I could jump down into the large mound of straw laying on the barn floor. How curious it is how we can be selective in what we are afraid of. The fun of leaping off the beam into the soft pile of straw much outweighed the fear of what might happen by doing so.

My childhood fears followed me into my college years. I was going to attend a large university. However, my fears kept me from there. Instead I settled for a junior college close to my home. It felt much less intimidating.

I was in my late twenties, with a husband and two children before I met up with God and saw what he had to do with me. As I tend to do, I dove in head first in learning about this God that wanted a relationship with me. ME! With my new-found faith, my husband bought me a bible. This very Bible. I couldn’t wait to dive into it. It is one of those women’s devotional bibles. Even though I grew up attending church, I had no idea how to read this Bible. A good friend of mine showed me how to read it. This is the same friend that invited me to her church, the one where I accepted Jesus. 

Second Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” This was the first verse to capture my attention. After reading it, I was struck by it. “Wait… God didn’t give me a spirit of fear. So, where did all these fears come from?” I have since been on a journey with God towards freedom from my many fears.

Soon after my fear revelation, I began to notice that God was breaking down the walls of my fears, one by one. I frequently didn’t even notice it was happening until I realized a fear that I carried for years, was now gone. 

Dying was one of my greatest fears. Since an encounter with Jesus I haven’t feared death. Not far into my faith journey, I found myself one night thinking about how scarry death is. I was lying on my left side in my bed attempting to go to sleep. I felt a warm calming presence in the room. Then I felt a hand resting on my side, over my ribs down to my hip. In that instant, I knew it was Jesus. Somehow I knew I no longer needed to fear death. And I haven’t since.

Serving in children’s ministry helped me to learn about God in a way I could understand. Teaching the kiddos, taught me. Little by little my faith was growing. My fears were being unlearned through the Father revealing himself to me through one experience after another. I was still afraid of speaking to groups of people… unless they were little people. 

Before I could decipher what God was up to, I was asked to speak for a Mother Daughter event at my church. I agreed to the request. The day came for the event. I had prepared a message but not my stomach. Before the event, I thought my stomach was going to leave my body because my nerves were so bad. I retreated to a quiet restroom to pray. 

Once I began to speak to the ladies, I felt relaxed. It was then that I realized God had plans for me that involved speaking in front of people.

My tiny step of faith in accepting Jesus as my Savior resulted in the Father’s plan for my life moving forward. He has given me his supernatural power to accomplish things that I never could have dreamed of as the fear-filled little girl I was prior to knowing what God had to do with me. My stomach still rebels a bit right before I speak to groups. However, it’s nothing like when I was a kid getting physically ill anytime I had to stand in front of my class or talk to a group of people.

Fear has no place. Courage takes its place when we embrace faith.

What fears are stopping the life God has for you?